What can we do to avoid listening fattigue?

[gasolin]

Listening fattigue is the worst thing and i think it's most the tweeter that courses listening fattigue, some say speakers like B&W 685 & Monitor Audio BX2 although there are good, have listening fattigue, which only can be noticed using a speakers more then up to like 30 min in a store where you often are listening to more then one speakers with in the time you are in the store.

What can we do to avoid listening fattigue? (other then look for new speakers)

 

[CnoEvil]

- Match kit carefully

- Pay attention to room acoustics

- Fully understand your own taste and spend a lot of time demoing before purchasing.

- Choose well mastered recordings where possible.

- Avoid silver coated cabling unless system is too dull sounding (this is much less important than the above points)

 

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

I had my MA B4 for 10 years and never had listening fattigue, i've MA RS1 for one year and never had listening fattigue, and i've 10 hours sessions.

If you have listenhig fattigue some thing in your system is not made for you!

if you can't spend money in a new set of speakers try to change the speaker cables, 100% copper to smooth things a bit!

 

[steve_1979]

A 'lively' and reflective room can be sometimes sound fatuging. Try putting carpets/rugs/soft furnishings in front of the reflective surfaces.

 

[simonlewis]

I avoid listening fatigue regularly by switching the music off & switching the tv on.

 

[Overdose]

Listening fattigue is the worst thing and i think it's most the tweeter that courses listening fattigue, some say speakers like B&W 685 & Monitor Audio BX2 although there are good, have listening fattigue, which only can be noticed using a speakers more then up to like 30 min in a store where you often are listening to more then one speakers with in the time you are in the store.

What can we do to avoid listening fattigue? (other then look for new speakers)

In all honesty, it's not something I've ever noticed and I always thought was an audiophile myth.

10 seconds of Emeli Sande though, is enough to make me want to turn the system off, but then that's probably not the same thing,

 

[GMK]

Amen to that

 

[busb]

I avoid listening fatigue regularly by switching the music off & switching the tv on.

I do this! It's the only time I turn the volume up at all on my TV at all - I turn it up really LOUD until I can just about hear a broom handle thumping on the floor under my chair. I then know it's time to to switch off the TV & resume listening to my stereo.

On slightly more serious note, this was never a problem until 5 months ago when I bought a new amp. Most of the time, my system sounded amazing but for a small percentage of pop recordings that sounded harsh & often over-compressed. Reducing the speaker's toe-in helped, as did replacing my ancient speaker cable. Since fettling my system, it's now less of an issue but having the best system I've ever owned by some margin, that's very revealing - it's brought home just how poor some recordings are - even a few classical recordings are very indifferent but some pop is appallingly recorded to the point I have trouble working out if its the recording industry being cynical or incompetent.

It's been touched on in this thread but the solution IMO, is not to go for a warm inoffensive sound where every recording in one's collection sounds "acceptable" - as tempting as doing so may seem. It's a tough one though, we want to hear music without wincing but still have some excitement. Careful matching helps & I hope this trend for speakers' specs to be 40 - 40kHz is backfiring on customers!

 

[CnoEvil]

On slightly more serious note, this was never a problem until 5 months ago when I bought a new amp. Most of the time, my system sounded amazing but for a small percentage of pop recordings that sounded harsh & often over-compressed.

Did you ever connect up your SL6s to your current system?

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Listening to a live rock concert is the same. Lower the volume.for a while???

 

[busb]

On slightly more serious note, this was never a problem until 5 months ago when I bought a new amp. Most of the time, my system sounded amazing but for a small percentage of pop recordings that sounded harsh & often over-compressed.

Did you ever connect up your SL6s to your current system?

Nope - but you've reminded me. Going back to the spare bedroom to bring down the 2nd one after typing this...

 

[CnoEvil]

On slightly more serious note, this was never a problem until 5 months ago when I bought a new amp. Most of the time, my system sounded amazing but for a small percentage of pop recordings that sounded harsh & often over-compressed.

Did you ever connect up your SL6s to your current system?

Nope - but you've reminded me. Going back to the spare bedroom to bring down the 2nd one after typing this...

Please let me know how it goes......it should be a great match with the Primare, and be almost holograhic on certain types of music. There should be Zero listening fatigue, though at the expense of some excitement. The SL6s crave current the way adrenalin junkies crave danger.

 

[fr0g]

The best way to avoid "listening fattigue" is to use a spell.checker imo.

 

[busb]

On slightly more serious note, this was never a problem until 5 months ago when I bought a new amp. Most of the time, my system sounded amazing but for a small percentage of pop recordings that sounded harsh & often over-compressed.

Did you ever connect up your SL6s to your current system?

Nope - but you've reminded me. Going back to the spare bedroom to bring down the 2nd one after typing this...

Please let me know how it goes......it should be a great match with the Primare, and be almost holograhic on certain types of music. There should be Zero listening fatigue, though at the expense of some excitement. The SL6s crave current the way adrenalin junkies crave danger.

Oops - gone back to using my laptop here instead. Now been on for 15mins. Well, they work fine but any comments I make need to be in the context that they hadn't any current for 18 months so will leave them for as long as I can take them! Started off with a couple of tracks from Lamb's "What Sound". They sound SLUGGISH. Imaging is OK but hell, if the Arros do only one thing absolutely brilliantly, it's imaging & throw in the Primare - height as well. Am listening to the 2nd disc of Mothership that does sound better. especially "Nobody's fault but mine" but hell that sounds good with my head under water!

CnoE, they don't sound awful - just a little syruppy at the mo so yes, they ain't going to sound fatiguing. Let's give them a fighting chance. Bass isn't very well defined...

 

[BenLaw]

Does a spell.checker require a separate punctuation.checker?

 

[CnoEvil]

Oops - gone back to using my laptop here instead. Now been on for 15mins. Well, they work fine but any comments I make need to be in the context that they hadn't any current for 18 months so will leave them for as long as I can take them! Started off with a couple of tracks from Lamb's "What Sound". They sound SLUGGISH. Imaging is OK but hell, if the Arros do only one thing absolutely brilliantly, it's imaging & throw in the Primare - height as well. Am listening to the 2nd disc of Mothership that does sound better. especially "Nobody's fault but mine" but hell that sounds good with my head under water!

CnoE, they don't sound awful - just a little syruppy at the mo so yes, they ain't going to sound fatiguing. Let's give them a fighting chance. Bass isn't very well defined...

I used to love them for simple acoustic / female vocal, opera, choral and concertos (especially violin).....they also needed a bit of "wellie" to wake them up.

They are so totally different to the Arros, that a certain acclimatization will be needed.

What stands are they on?

 

[steve_1979]

The best way to avoid "listening fattigue" is to use a spell.checker imo.

Does a spell.checker require a separate punctuation.checker?

:rofl:

 

[steve_1979]

Warm sounding speakers that have a soft treble sound or have less treble volume are easy to listen to without fatigue. But IMO warm sounding speakers also tend to rob music of some of it's detail and clarity so they can be a trade off.

The best way to have a system that doesn't fatigue is to use speakers and amplifier that keep distortion to a minimum. This way you can still have lots of detail without the sound ever getting tiring. Just have a listen to some neutral sounding studio monitors such as Quested speakers to see what I mean. They have all the detail you could ever want but are also easy to listen to all day long without ever getting fatuging.

 

[busb]

Oops - ...... with my head under water!

CnoE, they don't sound awful - just a little syruppy at the mo so yes, they ain't going to sound fatiguing. Let's give them a fighting chance. Bass isn't very well defined...

I used to love them for simple acoustic / female vocal, opera, choral and concertos (especially violin).....they also needed a bit of "wellie" to wake them up.

They are so totally different to the Arros, that a certain acclimatization will be needed.

What stands are they on?

Something Solid - they are not going to be done under the Trades Description Act! The are heavy, all steel with the top plate welded over a sand-filled collumn. Got them from Reading Cassette & Hi Fi before they became Audio T. They were designed specifically for the SL6s & possibly the SL600s. Just played "Spaceman" by Babylon Zoo(!) sounded better. Listening too Caro Emerald's "Stuck" - her voice clips into distortion but I'm the only one that seems to notice. Sounding better by the minute.

 

[CnoEvil]

Something Solid - they are not going to be done under the Trades Description Act! The are heavy, all steel with the top plate welded over a sand-filled collumn. Got them from Reading Cassette & Hi Fi before they became Audio T. They were designed specifically for the SL6s & possibly the SL600s. Just played "Spaceman" by Babylon Zoo(!) sounded better. Listening too Caro Emerald's "Stuck" - her voice clips into distortion but I'm the only one that seems to notice. Sounding better by the minute.

Stands sound like they're perfect....are you using a little Blu-tac?

IMO. Their talents kind of creep up on you, as they're not a dramatic listen....the human voice used to sound uncannily real on mine (original copper tweeter version).

(Sorry to OP for diversion, but the SL6s are one of the most fatigue free speakers ever built imo...so it has a sort of relevance.)

 

[GMK]

The most fatigue free speakers I've heard of late are the Tannoy V4's. They dig up a surprising amount of detail and yet never vere into harshness, despite my CD63 showing occasional signs of it with almost every other speaker I own (and that's 13 odd pairs)

 

[chrisk139]

I am so with you on that!

 

[chrisk139]

I am so with you on that!

 

[steve_1979]

Listening too Caro Emerald's "Stuck" - her voice clips into distortion but I'm the only one that seems to notice.

Yes her voice does sound like it's clipping on that track. I'd never noticed it before until you pointed it out.

There's no sign of clipping when looking at the track in Audacity though. Maybe they added some other sound effect to her voice when they were mixing/mastering the song? :?

 

[busb]

Something Solid - they are not going to be done under the Trades Description Act! The are heavy, all steel with the top plate welded over a sand-filled collumn. Got them from Reading Cassette & Hi Fi before they became Audio T. They were designed specifically for the SL6s & possibly the SL600s. Just played "Spaceman" by Babylon Zoo(!) sounded better. Listening too Caro Emerald's "Stuck" - her voice clips into distortion but I'm the only one that seems to notice. Sounding better by the minute.

Stands sound like they're perfect....are you using a little Blu-tac?

IMO. Their talents kind of creep up on you, as they're not a dramatic listen....the human voice used to sound uncannily real on mine (original copper tweeter version).

(Sorry to OP for diversion, but the SL6s are one of the most fatigue free speakers ever built imo...so it has a sort of relevance.)

Playing some Colourbox (EP). They are beginning to sing - they had to be fair speakers - I put up with them for well over twenty yrs. Now I know why, despite regular comments about being bass light. They sound bass tight now! Never thought they'd sound this good. Knowing they are not the most fatigue-free speakers on the planet comes as a relief - they are not coma inducing!

No, not using BluTac, BlackTac or anything like it - 8mm dia x 6mm clear plastic stick-on feet, stuck onto the stands rather than SL6s. Imaging's better after the warmup. Going to Dig out some Joni Mitchell.