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Does listening fatigue go away???

Hello everyone,

Just want to ask everyone here an honest question. Is listening fatigue sometimes associated with getting used to a "presentation" coming from your setup. In addition, is the burn period people talk about also associated with the above?

The reason I ask is that I currently own a pair of Quad 12L Active speakers that were being feed directly by a Squeezebox Touch. Unfortunately this setup only had a digital volume control which really affected low level listening. My solution was to add an external means of volume control with the Warpspeed optocoupler which uses LDR. I have received it this week and it has made a huge difference in almost every facet of the sound, soundstage, speed, bass, imagining, clarity and authority without adding any coloration. It also dead quiet and I have spooked out my wife a few times when the music suddenly comes on. In fact the only issue I have been having is listening fatigue after about an hour which I did not have before.

My question is it just me getting used to the new sound or something with the warpspeed or mogami wire? How can I pinpoint the problem? I also am planning to get an EE minimax plus soon, you think that will alleviate the problem?

Thanks for you advice.
daimbert
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,262 posts
 
Please take two vinyl albums and call me in the morning
daimbert OP
56 posts
 
Thanks for the information everyone. To be honest, I kind of assumed that my low hours of use was an issue. What I was more curious to know it the "break in" period and "listening fatigue" that people, myself included, complain about are one and the same. That is, that you mind and ears need an adjustment period to get used to the sonic presentation of certain new components or systems.
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,502 posts
 
Hi

For me reducing listening fatigue was quite an ordeal.

Here was the list of problems. I hope this can help with your battle with listening fatigue.

1) Lack of room treatment. My listening space had lots of bare walls.

2) Tweeter height on my speakers at the time. I put them on stands that put the tweeters right at my ear level. I did this because of aesthetics. I thought the speakers should be taller. The tweeters and speakers in general were supposed to be 6 inches below ear height.

3) The toe-in angle of my speakers was to sharp. I had them pointing at my ears. I had to decrease the toe-in by a bit.

4) Speaker cables weren't a match for my system. Even after over 400 hours of burn-in my ears would hurt on some recordings even after I handled some of the placement issues with the speakers.

5) Amp. It had a lot of gain and was too revealing. It was airy and gave me a lot of detail that I wanted but the cables and other issues the detail and harshness got too much.

It was a long journey but my listening fatigue is gone now but I had to make sweeping changes.

Good luck
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
4,494 posts
 
You could have put on Charles Mingus' 'hog callin' Blues', and solved the whole thing much quicker and cheaper.
ivan_nosnibor's avatar
ivan_nosnibor
782 posts
 
Oh, now I see Daimbert. No, burn-in and listening fatigue are actually 2 separate issues. Both are real, but burn-in does indeed go away while listening fatigue does not ever do so unless and until you make whatever the necessary pre-emptive changes turn out to be in your system. Burn-in doesn't usually take too very long to go away. Most of the change in sound for components tends to happen within the first few hours to the first few days, but formally speaking it may not actually complete itself until anywhere from 2 weeks to a month or so out. Copper wiring can take about a week or 2 and silver wiring can typically take around 400 hrs, or even more, really.
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