Three things I’ve learned about listening.

Great discussion.

A hobby is a regular, voluntary activity performed for pleasure and relaxation during leisure time, distinct from one’s main occupation or work. It is a pursuit aimed at enjoyment or personal interest, rather than financial gain. 

Listening to music (at home and live) is a hobby that I am passionate about. How you go about pursuing and playing music depends on a multitude of factors (budget, time, listening space, other people in the house, etc). Tweaking and playing around with my hifi gear is part of this hobby for me. One thing I enjoy about this hobby is that there is no "perfect" sound and it is fun and relaxing to find what sounds good to my ears that fits my budget. Some people who love music are fine with a blue-tooth speaker and a mobile phone. I like taking a deeper dive into recreating, understanding and immersing into the sounds. My wife reckons listening to music is a form of communication for me. Since she is smarter than me, I’ll go with that. 

What I have learned from listening is that I just love music and enjoy leaning about its production and hifi gear to play it on. It is a bottomless well for sure. Cheers!

1. If you listen for sonic problems you’ll find them.

    Of course. As you lean so you discover.  Part of the process.

2. Since it is a hobby, you feel you have to play with it.

     That is almost the definition of the hobby and it’s pleasure

3. If it sounds really good, leave it alone!

      What would be the fun it that?  We are all here for different reasons. Some

      have unlimited funds to spend on finding perfection.  The rest find ways to          

     improve within limited budgets. All successes create satisfaction.

"All successes create satisfaction."

But the greatest satisfactions comes from "rolling your own" rather than paying for someone else to "roll it for you."  

@rvpiano Great post, truly inspired. Like a lot of people (I expect), I do my most critical listening AFTER I buy a new component. Most of the time, I congratulate myself on having a system that sounds so good— to me. Other times, it is just in the background. I also listen more when I retreat to my ‘listening room’ rather than have music playing while I scroll on my phone, read the newspaper, or check my messages. The phone doesn’t come out in ‘the listening room’.

@oldrooney 

Thank you.