[asilker]

Why don't you attempt a blind A/B test?  Seems like you have a ton of free time.  For yourself, why not see if those goosebumps are anything more than a mood swing?  Go for it.  

Well ya know, "free" time. Still have deadlines and whatnot, just not clocking in

My earlier comments were not meant as a scientific claim. I used the term "acid test" but perhaps I should have said "trusted hunch" I supposed but assumed the intention was understood. I simply mean that often before I can point out the reason why I prefer one component over another, the goosebumps suggest which I will decide with a bit of accuracy.

Maybe I will do a goosebumps a/b soon and see how it goes

 

[sonitus mirus]

Well ya know, "free" time. Still have deadlines and whatnot, just not clocking in

My earlier comments were not meant as a scientific claim. I used the term "acid test" but perhaps I should have said "trusted hunch" I supposed but assumed the intention was understood. I simply mean that often before I can point out the reason why I prefer one component over another, the goosebumps suggest which I will decide with a bit of accuracy.

Maybe I will do a goosebumps a/b soon and see how it goes

I completely understood what you thought you meant.  I simply do not agree with it.  Please do yourself a favor and prove that you are actually hearing differences that you claim to be able to hear with whatever this goosebump method might entail. There are several members that can certainly help with testing methodology.  

 

[castleofargh]

seems to me that I can kind of command goose bumps just by thinking about having some. that makes things kind of complicated and it's far less cool than commanding dragons.
I would think that goose bumps are primarily a protective reaction to something like an emotional charge, getting cold... so while we crave for it as reaction to something "strong" happening, I'm not sure my body really feels it's anything positive. maybe it's step one of S&M? ^_^ we get on alert at some primal level or whatever, and the rush is exciting? first music goose bumps, next skydiving?

 

[asilker]

I did repeated A/B tests between a pair of Yamaha NS500m monitors and a pair of Infinity Reference 5 (with the Emit tweeters). On a few particularly well known, goosebump-prone tracks from Neil Young, Neko Case, and a few others, the Infinities did occassionally give me goosebumps while the Yamaha's did not. Even after the comparison, they never did in the few months that I owned them and rotated them regularly

 

[dprimary]

  When I try out new gear, there's a few things I look for... but goosebumps are kind of my acid-test. I regard it as my body asking me to keep a piece of gear 

 The analysis of what aspects of a composition introduce goosebumps is interesting, but the speculation as to personalities that are susceptable to this phenomenon is what's really interesting about the article. Also there's kind of a rabbit hole of links in the hyper-linked words

I can't remember ever getting goosebumps or chill from a piece of gear, only a performance. Though I have stood up (repeatedly) to look over the meter bridge and computer monitor to look to for something I knew is not there, while testing monitors.

 

[gregorio]

I recently got goosebumps from a rip of an old amateur recorded cassette tape someone sent me. The fidelity was so poor the music was only just audible over the noise/distortion, the goosebumps were obviously not caused by the high fidelity of the recording or playback equipment, as it would be hard to imagine a recording with lower fidelity! In this case, the goosebumps were caused by the recording triggering the memory of the performance.
 
I also disagree with the linked article, goosebumps are often caused by entirely expected harmonies/stimuli, not just unexpected ones. If the article's assertion were true, it would not be possible to get goosebumps from a piece of music one already knows or from say a predictable/expected harmonic resolution. Clearly this is not the case, although I don't doubt that expectation can/does play a role in goosebumps. Additionally, the author admits that other art-forms can cause goosebumps, movies or even visual art with no audio component for example and I've seen little evidence to suggest music causes this response more than other types of stimuli.
 
With so many potential variables at play and some/many of them having nothing whatsoever to do with audio fidelity, I personally can't think of many things less reliable than the sensation of goosebumps as an "acid test" for audio equipment, not withstanding the fact that goosebumps is a powerful influence/bias. Each to their own though, I appreciate that for many/most audiophiles it's about their personal experience/enjoyment of their sound system and that means price, visual appearance, press reviews and/or other expectation biases commonly take precedence over actual audio fidelity, in which case goosebumps may indeed be an excellent "acid test" under certain circumstances.
 
G

 

[asilker]

I conclude that I have more sonically sensitive skin than the rest of these posters.

More seriously though, I wonder if being acclimated to a certain system's intricacies and behaviors raises the chance of the goosebump phenomenon. Ex/ as you're more familiar and know hat to expect from your hardware, you're able to daydream about the composition more

 

[goodyfresh]

I get these sometimes.  It's a very nic experience when a song does this to me.  WIth my new HiFiMan Edition S headphones (which I love because I can wear them as over-ears with my tiny ears, they sound amazing that way, haha) I have been getting this experience with A LOT of songs these last few days.  Hotel California, Kashmir (and some other Zep songs), moments in all of Beethoven's Symphonies, etc., have all been giving me frisson/musical-goosebumps/whatever-it's called

I can get goosebumps from some of those same moments in songs with my Trinity Delta IEM's, but not as much.  Hearing the songs the second time now with my Edition S, I don't seem to be getting the goosebumps except in just a couple key moments, rather than getting them often.
 
Used to get this experience plenty as well when I had a pair of Alpha Dogs on loan to me for five months.  They're very very musical headphones.

I sometimes get this from emotional moments in stuff other than music, like moments in movies that are poignant for me (specifically remember getting these at that moment when you-know-what happens involving Han Solo and his son in The Force Awakens, for example).

 

[lawlbear]

Dope article.