Are "listening to" or "listening with"


Many many years ago, like Steve Gutenberg, I worked in motion picture projection booths. First as a projectionist, then doing industrial and circuit board design for a competitor of Dolby's.

As a projectionist, avoiding film scratches, and dust, ensuring lamps were rotated and offering proper edge to edge lighting, not to mention sound quality were always on my mind.

To the point that I could not watch movies anymore. In a real sense, the age of digital film was a sweet relief to me. I had literally trained my eyes/brain/reward centers to scan for imperfections, identify them and then rush to fix them. I was no better a movie watcher than anyone else. In fact, I was poorer for it, as I lost sight of framing, pacing, arguments and story telling, let alone human interaction on the screen.

The point I wanted to make is too often as audiophiles we do ourselves a disservice. We start listening TO equipment, instead of listening to music WITH equipment.

As with anything, to your own tastes be true, buy what you like, but make these choices about listening TO or WITH conscious ones. Know that if you listen TO you have a tough time listening WITH. Please yourself, but know that you are hacking your brain when you listen TO gear, and that this hacking may or may not be that rewarding in the end.
erik_squires
My issue is not the "with" or the "to" but the recording. The best recordings transport me to where I'm in awe of the beauty of the music and an appreciation of the excellence of the reproduction chain. Listening to a great recording is the state of the art.
@noromance I agree. I hear people say that if your equipment is good enough you can accommodate for poor recordings. I’m sure you can to a certain extent but it seems counterintuitive that you can transform a poor recording to the level of a fine recording.

And it seems that for anyone who obsesses about SQ you have to start with a good recording.

So I tend to spend my time and money looking for good recordings now.

Audiogon is a good resource for that.

I love it all! Start to finish I love the profession and hobby, I can't get enough. Tuning is the difference for me. If I had to listen to a "one sound" system I'd be gone. Nothing like exploring a recording for it's uniqueness. Listening to a system for me is just the beginning. Once I make that system flexible that's when the fun of a recording starts.

michael green

Michael :
You touch on a good point. Neutral systems really help you explore a lot of different music and movies in a way in which more tailored systems have trouble with.

Best,
E
Yes, finding a cure for all those underlying things (colorations, mud, hash, noise) was what got my system over the hump. The final breakthrough for me on that happened earlier this year and now I'm a different man. I still don't know how to act after having spent the better part of this decade with ever increasing levels of listening to gear, regardless of music...but that's all in the rear view now. I know with certainty now that if I never bought anything else, I'd be absolutely ok with everything I have.

I may have done some things electronically, but it's like Michael says: in some sense you end up having to "make the system flexible", one way or another (passively or actively), to get control over how the system is delivering the sound to your ears, and in your room.