Tired?

Some systems make you want to stay. Others make you reach for the volume control.

Listening fatigue. 

The most common cause is distortion, but not the kind we easily measure. Some of the lowest distortion electronics in the market have some of the worst glare and face-wincing performance as the volume rises. No, this kind of distortion is not classically measured, and we have to rely upon our skills as listening engineers to figure out the causes and fix them.

Room acoustics contribute too. Strong early reflections — sound bouncing off a nearby wall and arriving at your ears milliseconds after the direct sound — create a kind of psychoacoustic interference your brain has to work to decode. Over time, that decoding work becomes exhausting.

A bright, lively room with hard surfaces can make even a great system feel aggressive.

The good news? Fatigue is one of the most useful diagnostic tools we have. When a system change reduces it — when you find yourself still happily listening two hours later and surprised how quickly the time passed — that's what we're striving for.

The goal is a system that makes you lose track of time.

If you're checking the clock after an hour, something's worth looking at.