The first listen, alone

The new room was finished, the system installed, the new circuits given their first 10 to 20 hours. I could have invited the whole Sound Lab. I did the first critical listening session alone.

No partners, no distractions, nobody saying wow before I had made up my own mind. I wanted my first impressions to be entirely mine and uninfluenced. Excitement is contagious in a room, and it is very hard to tell your own from everyone else's.

Don't misunderstand me, I was not alone because I trust my ears completely. I was alone because I know I cannot. Anything new sounds better because your attention is heightened; give it six months and suddenly it is just your system. Add a room full of excited friends to that and nothing reliable is left.

So it was me, Pink Floyd's The Wall and the helicopter. For the first time in my system it came from high on the ceiling to the right, approached my seat, then moved out to the left and vanished, staying high the whole way, as a helicopter should. Session after session since then, the same thing holds.

Share the music with friends, always. Just let the first judgement be yours, before anyone else's excitement walks into the room.