[oddity]

In a recent thread (http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/544331/dunning-kruger-effect/15) that talks about the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a lot of people have made statements and cited facts about the superiority of so-called "trained" listeners versus regular folks.
 
What does this training entail?
 
Who teaches this sort of thing?
 
In what profession/s would this training be applicable to?
 
Where can you receive this training?
 
Is there some sort of industry / scientific standard that this training is based on?
 
I am willing to believe that one can become a trained listener, but I am skeptical about whether this sort of training has roots in science or is a literal "by-ear" subjective education.
 
If the former is true, then no one without this training should have any business whatsoever in critiquing audio equipment. What do you think?

 

[El_Doug]

The roots are most definitely in science - at its most basic, boost a given frequency and do sighted listenings until you can distinguish them without knowing.  How challenging this learning curve is, is hard to say

 

[roadcykler]

Unless one makes their living as a reviewer, I'm not sure why they'd want to be "trained". It seems to make much more sense to me to find a pair of speakers or headphones that sound good to you with the type of music you listen to. If you have trained ears, there will likely always be a deficiency that will make your listening experience not as satisfying as it could be. But, to each their own I suppose.

 

[fozzy fosbourne]

Sean Olive, Director of R&D over at Harman, talks about this a bit in his blog.
 
They have released a beta public version of their internal listener training software recently: 
http://seanolive.blogspot.com/2011/03/harman-how-to-listen-listener-training.html
 
There is a posting about the topic of listener training here:
http://seanolive.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-listen-course-on-how-to.html
 
I'm still wading through this stuff, too.  Part of me is curious if i'm better off just remaining naive and happy (if a bit confused), though 

 

[keanex]

If you want to ruin your music listening the rest of your life go on and "learn." Otherwise just enjoy what you hear.

 

[JadeEast]

Quote:

If you want to ruin your music listening the rest of your life go on and "learn." Otherwise just enjoy what you hear.

If your aesthetic enjoyment is so precarious and precious that a bit of objective training is going to be ruin the experience I feel sorry for you. 

 

[keanex]

If you need to nitpick every aspect of a song and recording to enjoy it, I feel sorry for you.

 

[nick_charles]

Quote:

Unless one makes their living as a reviewer, I'm not sure why they'd want to be "trained". It seems to make much more sense to me to find a pair of speakers or headphones that sound good to you with the type of music you listen to. If you have trained ears, there will likely always be a deficiency that will make your listening experience not as satisfying as it could be. But, to each their own I suppose.

 
To my mind there is (1) listening for pleasure and (2) listening to tell if A is different from B.
 
I'd only employ (2) when testing some kind of claim, or just to see if I could tell a difference, but however often I have done (2) via DBT and so on, it has never stopped me being able to do (1). (1) Is what you do day to day, (2) is nice to be able to do sometimes before parting with huge sums of money for an upgrade......
 
If we were unable to turn off some of our critical abilities from time to time we'd never be able to watch broadcast TV.

 

[Uncle Erik]

IIRC, there was a "Golden Ears" training course offered on CDs and with texts a few years ago. I haven't taken it, but it claims to train you to distinguish differences.

Though not formal training for recording/professional applications, I had regular music instruction from when I was nine through 22. I played a number of instruments in various orchestras, marching bands, a jazz band, and a few others. I am not lucky enough to have perfect pitch, but my relative pitch is quite good. I can tune myself well and know when others clam a note. This education included music appreciation and theory, as well. I've been in hundreds of live performances, too.

If something isn't right, I hear it. I know what an entire orchestra sounds like in real life. I also have been to several hundred live performances - I still hear bar bands a couple times a week.

If you want to develop your ears, take up an instrument. Play a lot and perform when you can. You'll learn a lot about music and your instincts will tell you a lot about what you're hearing.

Another way to get at this is to start recording live performances. Back in the day, audiophiles used to record performances in addition to just listening. This is why most old reel-to-reel players also record. This is something I'd like to do one of these days. Recording will teach you a lot about sound and how to record it.

 

[Lunatique]

I have a really great book (it contains an audio CD) that is one of the best critical listening skill development instructions I've come across, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about learning how to listen to sound properly:
 
Critical Listening Skills for Audio Professionals, by F.Alton Everest:
http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Listening-Skills-Audio-Professionals/dp/1598630237
 
 
 
 
 

 

[Armaegis]

I have perfect pitch and it's both a blessing and a curse at times. That said, I am still able to enjoy most music and can "turn off" the critical ear to a certain extent. Sure, if I go to the symphony and a trumpet is slightly out of tune it will irk me the entire night. On the other hand I can go to a school recital where most assuredly most of the kids will not be future stars, but I will still enjoy the night.
 
Most of my music is in mp3 format and quite frankly I would fail most blind testing to pick out flac unless I was working with some very specific program material or had decade old mp3s with poor encoding. If I really work at it, I can even pick out when I change opamps. Does it really affect my enjoyment of the music? Not really (with the exception of one or two that just sounded terrible and I'm betting it was simply instability/oscillations and inadequate power supply I was hearing). There's a certain cognitive and audible threshold where once the equipment has reached a certain level of competency, further tweaks are exercises in self audiophile nerdity and flagellation.

 

[RexAeterna]

just listen to differnt things and instruments and different tunings in different rooms. everything around your will affect the sound you hear. just take some music courses or learn on your own by ear. i mean lot of people can't learn by ear but some can naturally. it takes time and practice. like take an acoustic guitar at standard E tuning and pluck each string at each fret and then try it different rooms cause each room can affect harmonics in the air. i barely play now since i'm busy but i can tune my instruments by ear.

that's just an example but ther is more to it. i mean anyone can train to be a critical listener. it just takes time. your ears will slowly adjust to the certian ''sound''  of everything you listen to. dose it affect your enjoyment of music listening? it can if you let it. i mean unless the speakers or headphones sound really really terrible. little coloration ain't gonna kill the experience(well for me).

just sit back,relax and let your ears do their job. if you are interested more then learn some instruments. it's never too late to learn anything. give it a try.