Listening “Through” your Equipment.

When I was in college to help “pay my way” I worked in a high-end audio store. It was great ear education to listen to systems from McIntosh, Marantz, Bozak, Sherwood, Acoustic Research, and many others that I could not afford on my small budget. However, I had the opportunity to listen to much of my favorite music on a variety of systems.

An early memorable experience was hearing some organ music (I think it was the Saint-Saëns Symphony #3 for Orchestra, Piano, and Organ) on one of our senior staff member’s AR3a speakers at his home. It was revelatory! Knocked the wind right out of me with its realism and soundstage.

In later years I had the chance to get something better in my own system, and I was well enough versed in brands and features to make some good choices.

You know the sequence yourself. I got better speakers, which required better amps, better amps required a better turntable and so it went, with constant upgrades. Then the digital world beckoned. After a rough start with some really horrible early CDs, digital slowly improved. I still had reel-to-reel tape as my highest standard, but digital was getting there, and it didn’t have all the associated hiss and hassle of operating a tape machine. (I still enjoy reel-to-reel on a vintage TEAC tape deck and for years with a Revox unit).

As I upgraded, I would listen for the differences the new equipment made. Better bass, smoother highs, less hiss, or rumble. I’ve done that for years, and it’s been fun.

Now, with reviewing equipment for Secrets it’s a similar experience. Unplug my old speakers and put in the review speakers searching for improvements. Often the improvements are there, or at least the speakers sound different, often in ways that are hard to quantify but they force me to listen closely. But while I’m listening closely sometimes, I’m not hearing the music as much as testing a spec.

Or I can add some electronics with increased dynamic range or lower distortion. Sometimes I hear it. Sometimes I don’t. But I have to catch myself and remember to experience the music.

The point of all this is at some point, probably fairly recently, I realized I was listening to the equipment and not the music. Slowly, inexorably, I had slipped away from the point of having a good system, and that was hearing my favorite music emotionally.

And the thrill I had listening to Saint-Saëns on those AR3a all those years ago had not been equaled as I listened to better and better equipment. And my gear was undeniably better. In every spec. But often I did not have the emotional attachment.

Was the problem with the equipment I was getting or the way I listened? Over time I’ve come to believe it’s me.

In recent years I’ve come to listen for little details. As I explained above, if a new speaker, for example, bragged about smoother highs I listened for that. If it had them, great, if not, it was hard to get enthused.

I think somewhere along the line I lost the big picture, because all of this hobby, if we can call it that, was focused on small differences in equipment or a particular technology or chip of software implementation. Lost in the graphs and specs was the music itself.

I realized it was important to listen through the equipment, not to it. It’s really a mental thing. So, I pulled out some music, including my beloved showpiece the Saint-Saëns #3, and just listened. Not for specs, but music. And surprisingly, at least to me, was that I had the same thrill I’d had years ago. I listened on my big living room system, a small bedroom system, and in my home theater with the processor switched to stereo. The music was great everywhere, no matter what the size of the room, or the type of equipment. I was impacted the same way I was those many years ago with the AR3a.

I guess it’s a mental adjustment thing, and it works on any kind of music. Simon and Garfunkel were thrilling, and so were Wes Montgomery, Mike Oldfield, and Taylor Swift.

I’ve said many times in my reviews that a new speaker or source component was like “listening to my music for the first time”. I’ll stand by that, as with each new review I focus on the music and how it changes or doesn’t change with different equipment.

Now, I humbly propose that without changing equipment you listen as if you are hearing the music for the ‘first time’. Take it all in as one experience, a gestalt, not focusing on the bass or treble or the imaging spread, but rather everything. I can almost guarantee it will be a different and positive experience.

That’s not to say I’m not always chasing some new equipment to enhance my experience with the music. But I am saying sometimes just sit and listen through the equipment to the performance. Revel in it. Experience it. I think you’ll find you will be doing that more and more with happier, more satisfying results.

I’m doing that, and I find it so exciting I’m increasing my use of this technique. It doesn’t come naturally. I have to work at it. But with practice, it is getting easier.

In my home theater, my front speakers are more than 20 years old, yet still tremendously satisfying. I may upgrade them some time, but concentrating on the performance and the musicians, listening through the gear, IS like hearing them for the first time.