Is it me or new audio gear is too perfect and give ear fatigue?


Since getting back into the hobby during covid I’ve really enjoyed listening to music vs. bluetooth low quality speakers.  Since listening to my Nautilus 803 speakers with old Yamaha Amps (MX1, MX1000) they’ve been sweet sounding and warm.

A lot of people have said the new equipment is near perfect chasing specs, sounding bright and causing ear fatigue.

Curious if people feel the same?

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The Holy Grail in this crazy hobby is an alchemy mix looking for a system synergy regardless of system price point strata. ( yes..it is far more acute as you ascend up into the component higher price points)

Achieving that ethereal system synergy (or not …) is a binary choice result …. It’s either “yay” or “nay”. It is very difficult to define it and anything but easy to get to it, but you intuitively know when you find it.(… or not …) 

Ear fatigue / listening fatigue is a litmus test of a clear miss … full stop. Make adjustments as required by a hands-on bespoke trial and error experimentation.

- a simple example of rolling up your sleeves in that trial and error process:

we all live in a world of budgets and resulting compromises, that is further confused by widely differing personal tastes and resulting biases. One thing remains a general constant in speaker selection in my experiences that is is also supported in many of the reviews :

The philosophy is clear. An affordable speaker with decent source and amplification makes more sense than an expensive speaker with a cheap amp and source.

 

I would ask yourself a few things before spending any money. And also think about what you want to do. These would be the steps I would ask myself.

1. Is your system bright sound set up or too analytical? 

2. How is your health condition? Tired body or low immune condition can also cause fatigue in hearing. Have some rest and try again, if this is the case. 

3. If you are already happy with your components, you need to think about which component you are willing to change. 

 - speakers? too bright? too analytical? 

 - if you are streaming, Tube output DACs are easier on your ears. 

 - Power amps, try warm tone tube amps, if you are using class D amps. 

Many recordings are very bright. A system flat to 20 kHz will (IME) result in fatigue. That will be accentuated by bad room acoustics (slap echo, early reflections).

Depending on one’s hearing, one might need to roll off the response to make many (but not all) recordings enjoyable. That usually means adjusting toe-in or using an equalizer. The advantage of the latter is that it can be adjusted to suit the recording.

Other sources of fatigue have been mentioned: ill health, impending hearing loss, HF distortion, or speakers with peaky or rising HF response.

 

This has been alluded to above but I will be more overt about it-you have a Japanese amp from 1988 (MX1000). While there are always exceptions that means a laid back sound character. The fact that your electronics tamed the leans-towards-bright B&W sound (and I am the original owner of a boatload of B&W's including Matrix 805's and like them!) says something about them. I don't mean to come off as a shite, but what exactly is your incredible over-generalized point? Is there a boatload of more modern gear that is impossible to listen to compared to yours? Yup. Is the vast majority of modern gear considered to be in the "high end" a gross contributor of listening fatigue? With amps and preamps my opinion is a steadfast and adamant "no". With digital, well, that is a whole 'nuther discussion and not one you brought up.