What exactly is critical listening? Who does it?

This is hard to define, as everyone has different goals. 

For me, critical listening has a few steps. 

1. How quiet the soft passages are the dark space

2. How different the soft from loud parts are, can a cymbal crash make me jump or surprise me?

3. Does each instrument have it's own space? Is it wide or narrow, are they crashed together or have their own space? Can I tell the difference between a bass drum and bass guitar?  

4. Decay, does a bass drum roll off, does a cymbal crash linger?

5. Vocals, are they up front? present, "on stage" so to speak.

6. Balance, is everything in balance? Does anything take over or is it smooth from bottom to top?

7. Does it make me feel anything?

@emergingsoul Thank you for the compliment regarding my system!

True it's mostly vintage with the exception of the digital front end however, it continues to please me quite thoroughly!

I've listened to newer gear of course but aside from a new cartridge or the Bluesound/Border Patrol combo, I haven't been compelled enough to invest in newer equipment. 

Happy listening.

For me critical listening is simply paying attention to the music and the recording quality with eyes closed and not doing anything else, just enjoying the music with no other distractions.

+1 @samureyex 

we have a large degree of semantic disagreement on this thread.

my viewpoint.....

critical listening = listening with some sort of discovery in mind.

non-critical listening = focused listening without distractions.

i think the cautionary aspect of being in a critical listening headspace is simply that our conscious mind is basically distracted by the processing going on, and the sensory reaction to the music is restricted. and expectation bias is very real.

so it’s important to understand the difference for finding the highest truth about our systems.

i know for myself personally i find the deepest most meaningful feedback about where my system is from non-critical listening.....where i am just listening without any specific agenda. it’s when the full wonder of the music seems to happen. where the music is driving my mind, not any mental baggage i’ve brought to the session.

how is the music making me feel? 

sometimes what can start as critical listening evolves into non critical listening as i get caught up in the music, but other times hard to free up my mind. better to start away from those agendas. if i get a new piece of gear i’m curious about it might take a few days or a week to escape the gear focus. but i know it’s important to get there.

YMMV.