Learning to listen

[stereogeek]

Way back in the late '70's or early '80's I had a Kenwood KD 500 turntable and I was looking to replace it as it was acting up. I went to a shop and the sales guy was showing me a Linn table. He asked me to bring in the Kenwood so we could compare the two. I brought the Kenwood in and we went back and forth with both tables and for the life of me I couldn't figure out if the Linn was better. I thought the highs on the Kenwood was a bit better, the mids on the Linn a bit better and the bass was a wash. The salesman told me "you are not listening correctly." I was a bit offended and bit confused by his comment. He said, "If you are trying to break down the highs, mids and lows and compare equipment, you are going to drive yourself crazy." Well, how else am I supposed to do it, I asked? He said, " Just listen to the song, the emotions of the song and if it's musical." After that, it took me 30 seconds to figure out the Linn was the better sounding table. That was one of the biggest hifi learning experiences I have ever had. Not too many months ago I was possibly going to replace my long standing preamp with a new one. After I listened to my old one I put the new one in the system and went downstairs and had lunch to let it warm up. When I listened to the new one it took all of 15 seconds to determine it was way better. I never put the old one back in the system, no back and forth and no regrets. BTW, I had 30 days to return it but it didn't matter. Hope this helps someone.

 

[Mr Peabody]

I think we all have a similar experience or at least learn what to listen for. Not to open a can of worms but this is what bothers me with DBT and those who claim not to hear differences in cables and such, if they even bother to try.

Way back when I worked in audio, wholesale and retail, I could tell that Carver sounded better than the Kenwood we had, I had a real ear opener the first time I heard a McIntosh tube amp playing in our service dept.

Still the first time I wondered into a real high end store with my 80's Hard Rock CD's, they were nice enough to play some on a Krell system driving Dynaudio, I left thinking my system has mor mid-bass yatta yatta. It took a couple more visits and I really picked up when I was shopping there for a new CDP. Each time I compared I would detect the differences. It really brings the lesson home, at least for me, when I put the new piece in my system to try, as we are more familiar with how our system sounds which should make any differences more evident.