Anybody else experience this?

[adwilk]

There are some days that I absolutely could not be happier with what I'm hearing, no matter what I throw at the rig, then there are days I don't want to listen to it because something just doesn't sound right and I wanna just give up. I guess its all relative, based on other listening throughout the day, but I'm just wondering if anybody else goes through this... thanks, y'all...

 

[krzywica]

Yeah I go through the exact same phenomenon.

I chalk it up to my man-period. Hey at least I can admit it.

 

[adwilk]

I chalk it up to my man-period.

Banned.

Nah, I smell what you're steppin in. It is weird though.

 

[Quickley17]

This has been studied...

Relationship of Personal Characteristics to Mood and Enjoyment after Hearing Live and Recorded Music and to Musical Taste
Barbara L. Wheeler

Montclair State College, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043.

This study investigated the influence of mood, personality characteristics, musical taste, musical training, college major, gender, and age, plus hearing music live or recorded, on listeners' moods after hearing music and on their enjoyment of the music. It also looked at the influence of the above listener characteristics on musical taste. Subjects were 101 undergraduate students, and the Personality Research Form served as the personality measure. Students took the personality test, answered a question describing their moods, heard either a live or a recorded musical perform- ance, again described their moods, and answered other questions about themselves and their responses to the music. Mood follow- ing the music was found to be predicted by mood prior to the music, enjoyment of the music, the Change scale of the PRF, and negatively by the Understanding scale. An interaction between mood prior to the music and enjoyment of the music was also found to be significant in predicting mood following the music. Significant predictors of enjoyment following the music and of taste for each of the seven types of music were also found. Implications of the findings for those who need to understand how music affects people, and needs for further research, are discussed.

Psychology of Music, Vol. 13, No. 2, 81-92 (1985)

 

[oppman99]

Pretty much the same thing here. I find a lot of it depends on my mood. I used to immediately go into tweak mode to see if I could "fix" the problem. Always made things sound worse. Happens much less often since I've gone to the gear in my signature. Now I pretty much leave all the setting flat and wait for my mood to change.

 

[krzywica]

Banned.

Nah, I smell what you're steppin in. It is weird though.

I think its the nature of music especially. Some days I come home and I just can't get enough sitting in front of my PC with the techno or Chevelle cranked, it feels as if the music is soaking into my very soul as I turn the dial furter and further to the right. (Sorry for the gayness, IDK whats wring with me today...).

And some days nothing sounds good, even my once favorite albums. I think it has something to do with emotions or chemical imbalance or something...I think Ash says it best...

"Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand alloys and compositions and things with... molecular structures."

 

[jamie2112]

Sometimes you just gotta deal with the fact that your gear sucks

 

[Adam]

There are some days that I absolutely could not be happier with what I'm hearing, no matter what I throw at the rig...

Translation: "There are some days that I'm absolutely hammered."

...then there are days I don't want to listen to it because something just doesn't sound right and I wanna just give up.

Translation: "There are other days that I'm actually moderately sober."

 

[djreef]

There are some days that I absolutely could not be happier with what I'm hearing, no matter what I throw at the rig, then there are days I don't want to listen to it because something just doesn't sound right and I wanna just give up. I guess its all relative, based on other listening throughout the day, but I'm just wondering if anybody else goes through this... thanks, y'all...

You're not taking/smoking/drinking the right shet.

DJ

 

[jostenmeat]

There are some days that I absolutely could not be happier with what I'm hearing, no matter what I throw at the rig, then there are days I don't want to listen to it because something just doesn't sound right and I wanna just give up. I guess its all relative, based on other listening throughout the day, but I'm just wondering if anybody else goes through this... thanks, y'all...

Can you please help me satisfy my curiosity, and tell me more specifically what is that leaves you wanting at times? Perhaps clarity and/or freq response, or imaging, or noise floor . . . or . . . you perhaps aren't even sure what it might be? . . .

 

[lsiberian]

This applies to everything in life for me. But believe me throwing a woman in the equation amplifies everything.

 

[corey]

I think I read a thread here that talked about the idea that audioholics spend too much time listening for flaws in their systems, rather than just enjoying the music/movie.

Audioholics tend to want to buy more stuff, and to buy more stuff, you have to spend your listening time identifying a flaw to fix, rather than just enjoying your system.

Here's a simple test: When Darla taps on the fish tank, do you think about Nemo, or subwoofers?

To the OP's point, perhaps your "doesn't sound right" days are when you are focusing too much on looking for system flaws, rather than just enjoying your stuff.

djreef and Adam have raised some very good points too.

 

[djreef]

I think I read a thread here that talked about the idea that audioholics spend too much time listening for flaws in their systems, rather than just enjoying the music/movie.

Audioholics tend to want to buy more stuff, and to buy more stuff, you have to spend your listening time identifying a flaw to fix, rather than just enjoying your system.

Here's a simple test: When Darla taps on the fish tank, do you think about Nemo, or subwoofers?

To the OP's point, perhaps your "doesn't sound right" days are when you are focusing too much on looking for system flaws, rather than just enjoying your stuff.

djreef and Adam have raised some very good points too.

Absolutely. Some of my most memorable listening sessions have come when I was hammered on one thing or another. As an example, I can actually remember feeling cold (2AM in the middle of July in Houston) while listening to Planet Caravan from Black Sabbath's Paranoid, a few years back. The sensation was surreal, like I was drifting in the cold of space. The depth of the sound field seemed immense, and very black. I actually felt like I was floating in some 3 dimensional vacuum. Man, I was jacked up.

DJ

 

[adwilk]

Can you please help me satisfy my curiosity, and tell me more specifically what is that leaves you wanting at times? Perhaps clarity and/or freq response, or imaging, or noise floor . . . or . . . you perhaps aren't even sure what it might be? . . .

I guess its a harder question to answer than I thought, but I'll try. Its more the wow factor to me. Somedays, I just hook up my iPod, listen to something and I'm really proud of what i've got, and how I've got it setup. Other days, it just seems to be missing something and I'm just not that impressed. I suppose its mostly the imaging and soundstage. Its just like it all runs together, the definition and spacing just isnt there and I'm not happy. I know my next big step is some room treatments and probably pictures of the setup should be posted. This is just regarding the two channel rig for music. Theater has A LONG ways to go. I just enjoy watching movies on a simple 3 channel setup for the time being. I gotta figure out what I want to do there. Its not a priority.

 

[Knucklehead90]

I think you've hit the nail on the head and drove it home.

Doesn't matter what hobby you are speaking of - photography - motorcycles - golfing - astronomy - audio (these are my main vises) cars - and the list goes on. There will always be a percentage that cannot let go of the idea that there is something that will sound better - go faster - better pics etc etc.

No rest for the inquisitive.

 

[adwilk]

Absolutely. Some of my most memorable listening sessions have come when I was hammered on one thing or another. As an example, I can actually remember feeling cold (2AM in the middle of July in Houston) while listening to Planet Caravan from Black Sabbath's Paranoid, a few years back. The sensation was surreal, like I was drifting in the cold of space. The depth of the sound field seemed immense, and very black. I actually felt like I was floating in some 3 dimensional vacuum. Man, I was jacked up.

DJ

You probably didn't even have your system on.

 

[MidnightSensi]

Absolutely. Some of my most memorable listening sessions have come when I was hammered on one thing or another.

Even if less noticeably, sober people have regular brain rhythms that will change how sound is perceived or enjoyed. Getting high often increases seratonin and dopamine, both which make music and senses more vivid and enjoyable....but even sober we all go up and down.

 

[lsiberian]

I think I read a thread here that talked about the idea that audioholics spend too much time listening for flaws in their systems, rather than just enjoying the music/movie.

Audioholics tend to want to buy more stuff, and to buy more stuff, you have to spend your listening time identifying a flaw to fix, rather than just enjoying your system.

Here's a simple test: When Darla taps on the fish tank, do you think about Nemo, or subwoofers?

To the OP's point, perhaps your "doesn't sound right" days are when you are focusing too much on looking for system flaws, rather than just enjoying your stuff.

djreef and Adam have raised some very good points too.

This wisdom applies to all things we men enjoy. Audio, Video, Cars, etc.
I love my car, my system, and my projector. It's not the same hifi stuff many folks on the forum have, but my stuff is still better than what almost anyone else has that I know.

 

[jostenmeat]

I guess its a harder question to answer than I thought, but I'll try. Its more the wow factor to me. Somedays, I just hook up my iPod, listen to something and I'm really proud of what i've got, and how I've got it setup. Other days, it just seems to be missing something and I'm just not that impressed. I suppose its mostly the imaging and soundstage. Its just like it all runs together, the definition and spacing just isnt there and I'm not happy. I know my next big step is some room treatments and probably pictures of the setup should be posted. This is just regarding the two channel rig for music. Theater has A LONG ways to go. I just enjoy watching movies on a simple 3 channel setup for the time being. I gotta figure out what I want to do there. Its not a priority.

Have you tried playing back finely recorded classical CDs? There is an enormous difference in spatial recording between such a disc and a downloaded-via-internet rock tune, for example, AFAIK.

Otherwise, yeah, like always, positioning of both speakers and listener. The feller who taught me room acoustic basics when I was getting my feet wet believes LP is the most important thing of all.

Once you implement treatments, you are given even more freedom in how you position it all.

Keep us posted.

 

[djreef]

I think you've hit the nail on the head and drove it home.

Doesn't matter what hobby you are speaking of - photography - motorcycles - golfing - astronomy - audio (these are my main vises) cars - and the list goes on. There will always be a percentage that cannot let go of the idea that there is something that will sound better - go faster - better pics etc etc.

No rest for the inquisitive.

Odd that this similar subject also pops up on one of the boards to one of my other hobbies right at the same time.

http://www.marshreef.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=44131

DJ