Hearing ability and listening methods; how they affect us.

I am starting this thread in the hope of gathering some information on what we can hear (frequencies) and how we approach our music listening. Also what type of music we listen to, and if that affects HOW we listen, and vice versa.

This came up in the "The little changes..." thread, but I feel it would be better off separated from that. Anecdotal evidence welcome, it's not a scientific study.

I started by mentioning that I felt that short bursts of music (in a blind test) probably wouldn't work for me, as I listen to long atmospheric and intricate pieces of music, whether it's Arvo Part, Toumani Diabate or Massive Attack. And whats next said he would be happy with short bursts, as that's how he compares. And that made me curious as to how others approach their listening.

I do listen to many other types of music too, from traveller/crusty (RDF, Back to the Planet), jazz, rock (mainly older stuff like Neil Young) and more recent vocal (Camille, Fink), but the way I listen has a big bearing on what I listen to.

Even with Fink, for example, I'm listening to the drummer's brushwork or the spaces the bass player leaves. And with Camille, it's the human beatbox bass. I like bass, you may have noticed, but texture not power, so a lot of dance music (for example) leaves me cold as the "instruments" sound so artificial.

I guess what I am saying here is that even if I listen to the same music as someone else, I possibly listen in a different way and to different aspects. Not for the rhythm, but the contrasts between different instruments, for one example.

My hifi choices are influenced by my music choices and vice versa. Both change as the other does too, and I go through phases. And I definitely feel my likes and dislikes are strongly affected by my hearing; rising HF sensitivity where most people have the opposite. I used to be able to hear bats quite clearly until not that many years ago, but I know that now at least one 40 year old can hear 2kHz higher than I can. I'm 66 BTW.

I appear to be alone here, in that I have a print out of a test which showed my hearing, so I don't expect test results. But how do you listen (lights on or off, sitting up or lying down) and what do you listen to (pop, rock, dance, classical, small or large scale, loud or quiet, and so on)? Or any other parameters that are interesting. I may be alone in my curiousity here, but I hope not.

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