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Listener fatigue: what does it really mean?

Okay, so I used to think that listener fatigue meant that your ears just kind of got tired from listening to speakers that were overly bright. I don't have a good understanding of the make up of an ear, but I believe there are muscles in an ear that, I guess, expand and contract while we listen to music and I figured that's what it meant to have listener fatigue. Now, I'm thinking that listener fatigue is maybe more than your ears just getting tired but actually, your whole body getting tired and feeling drained. I experienced this time and time again listening to my paradigm studio's. They are somewhat bright and provide quite a bit of detail in my oppinion, so I'm wondering if, since there was such a great amount of detail coming through, that it was physically draining because I'm sitting there analyzing everything that's coming through the speakers. I would wake up and first thing in the morning, grab a cup of coffee and start listening to music (my daily routine) and 20-30 minutes later start nodding off and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I've been sitting here this morning listening to my new vandersteen's for two hours and can't get enough. I feel like I could listen all day and that I'm almost energized from listening vs. drained.

Soooo, what are your oppinions about what listener fatigue is and why it's caused?
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Showing 1 response by mihorn

mihorn
445 posts
 

IMHO, one of the reasons for the listener fatigue is from a physical energy of sound. The sound has a physical energy and sonic energy. The p energy is what pushing the sound away from the speaker. We hear the S energy pushed from the P energy. What we want to listen is the S energy. Not P energy! For example, the beginner golfers hit a lot of slice balls. This slice ball flies straight at the beginning of the flight of the ball. The golf ball starts go to side way after hitting and pushing energy from the golf club (P energy) dissipated and weakened. P energy is forceful energy from an object and they hurt human ears like a sonic boom. S energy is a natural movement of the sound. The unbalance of P energy from the tweeter and the woofer causes discomfort and fatigue to your ears and brain. The unbalance of S energy will generate just tasteless of music sound. ***A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound.(from Wikipedia.com)

The bright sounding speakers are OK. I love shimmering, sweet, dazzling, and splendid high frequency as long as P energy between the tweeter and the woofer is balanced. I enjoy the bright S energy, but I don’t want the P energy from tweeter. We control the S energy with the volume level. If the P energy of the tweeter on any speaker can be controlled, we can easily make a musical sound system.

Some tweeters equip a plastic or metal cover to control P energy. The side effects are loosing a big portion of S energy and whirling turbulence of sound waves. We can’t get musical satisfaction from thin and diffused sounds. These speakers with a cover sound usually not musical. If they are musical, that’s from woofer. Not the tweeter. How musical can they be without the high freq? Mediocre at their best. The woofer and tweeter on the speaker should be P energy adjustable without loosing S energy. So, this hobby/passion for hi-end music could be little easier.

The physical energy is very easy to control. P energy dissipates after hit an object while S energy bounces. Simple! We need a sound wave guide that kills/reduces P energy and bounces S energy to a listener.

Just my 2 cents.
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