Close Eyes When Listening??

Hello!

I have a dumb question, but here goes.

Do you have any particular thing that you do to get maximum concentration on the music? When you are sitting in your sweet spot in your listening room do you look straight ahead? Focus on the speakers? Close your eyes? What helps you most? Since there is no visual to this hobby (and that is a good thing) what do you do with your eyes when listening?

Thanks.

I always listen with a few beers via headphones late at night,sometimes I just look straight ahead at my gear,whilst occasionally glancing up at the TV,or looking at the CD booklet,and/or record sleeve.. I never actually close my eyes,unless of course I accidentally nod off!

I listen to all my music in a dark room along with my eyes closed. Always have, always will...................

Mostly I look at the sonic content that's suspended in three dimensional space in front of me and take note of its placement and resolution. This really helps with maintaining focus during a critical listen (pretty much the only way I listen) and with multiple vocals and instruments in any given song it can take me the duration of an entire track to assess everything that's going on....and often times I'm not able to observe all of it before the song is over. Of course, since it's right in front of me I can't help but check out the equipment....so a nice aesthetic presentation matters as my eyes will naturally be drawn there. This all happens in a (quasi) dedicated listening space with dimmed track lighting directed at the speakers and front wall diffusers and some low wattage accent lighting behind the speakers. No other lights are on in the room so the focal point is definitely in the space where the gear is located. I don't do anything else when I'm listening except sip on a vodka and tonic.

- Michael


This would actually be a good discussion topic in the "General" forum. I suggest you request a mod relocate it there where I bet it will get a lot more traffic and responses.

I'm writing this while listening - the ipad is one heck of an invention.

I listen mostly with the lights low, but the rest of the time with my eyes closed.

redlegs75 said:

Hello!

I have a dumb question, but here goes.

Do you have any particular thing that you do to get maximum concentration on the music? When you are sitting in your sweet spot in your listening room do you look straight ahead? Focus on the speakers? Close your eyes? What helps you most? Since there is no visual to this hobby (and that is a good thing) what do you do with your eyes when listening?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

No Visual?
You're kidding right?
I take in the Music while looking/enjoying my System and all it's lights working as well as all my Lava etal Lights going all of this in a dark room and have done so for as long as I can remember. All of it is part of my listening/relaxing time/mood and it's fantastic each and everytime:It's part of the complete parcel/package):thmbsp:

I do a lot of different things; I look at the equipment, I look toward the imaging, I close my eyes, I listen in the dark. It's just whatever mood that I'm in.

And yes, there IS a visual component for me.

I listen whenever I can, wherever I can, by any means available.
With some of the listening rules I've read about, my daily dose of music would be very small...

Late night, low (or no) light, eyes closed, glasses off, clothing optional

Thanks for the input everyone. I guess I should clarify what I meant when I said we don't have visualization. What I meant was with listening to music WE get to visualize and provide whatever visualizing we do. With other modes of entertainment like watching TV (nothing wrong with that) the TV provides us automatically what the visual is. I did not mean that there is no visualizing going on. It is that we are a more in charge of that visualization. I like the lights idea. I have an old strobe light that shows the different color lights on the wall as it turns. I might get that out and see what happens. Lots of ideas.

Thanks.

My best listening is spent with my eyes closed.

Eyes closed for listening to music, eyes open for listening to the system. Prefer eyes closed....

Well I focus on something in the room - which enforces my attention and concentration - when I listen for example to the Violin Solo Concerts by J. S. Bach.

But I never close my eyes when I listen to music.

I listened in the dark to my system for the first time the other day and realized my Klipsch need recapped.

Sigh.

Damn you Critical Listening! !!!!




Matt

I find I tend to close my eyes when I hit that certain equipment combination that disappears and just makes you concentrate on the music involuntarily rather than anything else. I they are open and I am thinking or doing something with the music playing, the system has failed to achieve its purpose.

tybrad said:

I do a lot of different things; I look at the equipment, I look toward the imaging, I close my eyes, I listen in the dark. It's just whatever mood that I'm in.

And yes, there IS a visual component for me.

Click to expand...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In fact, a few nights ago, lights were dim, volume just right, and Robert Cray was on. It was one of those moments where I was transported back to when I saw him live. A small table, glass of beer, a pretty girl, and two others I did not know were seated about 20 feet from the stage. Young Bob started up Strong Persuader.... The whole thing lasted about maybe 10 seconds, but even the smell of the perfume she was wearing was present. And that is what music does.. It can take you somewhere and you don't even have to get in the car.

Turn down the lights with a few dimmed floor lamps, open a bottle of wine and just start listening. If the music is good and the system is good enough to convey the emotions of the music, then that's when I forget about the gear and just enjoy. The wine doesn't hurt either.

When I'm doing critical listening for upgrading/tweaking/comparisons, then that's when the "audiophile music" comes out and instead of focusing on the music as a whole, I'm more critically listening to specific parts and sections of the music.

I was listening last night to the Pink Floyd album Atom Heart Mother and the song If. I guess I had never recognized before how tender the vocals are sung in that song and the haunting David Gilmore guitar in that song. I heard things I had never heard before in that song. The whole album was very enjoyable in the same way. You know, some bands seem like part of the family and that is certainly true with Pink Floyd. But yea, I had eyes open but eyes were straight ahead and not really focused on anything. It was almost like I was at my own Pink Floyd concert.

Eyes closed. I'm always a bit surprised how small my room is when I open them.