What exactly is critical listening? Who does it?

Or maybe another aspect of critical listening is criticizing Rachmaninoff for use of French horns when he should be using trumpets for a passage that clearly needs a emphasized crescendo.  And at times limiting use of violins in the background.

And sometimes the tympany is just too overwhelming don’t you think

Yeah...those damn tympany players need to be reigned in...the good news for me is there are close to zero of them in my normal listening...small jazz combos, shoe gaze banjo, mope metal, mope mope, no mope, etc. 

It's trying to find perceived flaws to justify buying something more expensive in the quest for that "perfect"sound.

@musicfan2349 

Nice comment.  I guess when you reach a point your completely confident with your system you become less critical of it and just sit back and appreciate what you’re listening to knowing can’t get too much better, ie after allowing for recording quality which is always a wildcard.

I love your System with all the audio research and cj vintage stuff. smooth sounding I’m sure very nice for classical. Vintage stuff can be quite nice.

I smoke some weed and the listening gets critical immediately. Highly recommended. (unintentional pun)