Its certainly an interesting read mark, but i disagree... sure listening to distorted music will give you an ear for distortion. But the book was produced in 1953 and you can be 100% sure those boys were FIGHTING the equipment they had back in those days, just to get a distortion free, clean signal level.

1953 - strive for audio perfection free of hiss and distortion
2003 - Everyone's moaning that there isnt a decent digital distortion plugin

I also used to think that producing diminishes your listening pleasure. And it does, but in a different way. You no longer put up with laziness behind the console or from the artist, and in the early days of self production you become critical of everything - not because you want to be, but because you have to be.

After a while things change and you start to enjoy music for its merits, not its faults. After all it goes right back to that manual Mark read - they looked to eliminate distortion, we KNOW we can put it back if we need. In other words your listening pleasure only returns when you start looking at the best bits in a song (still being aware of its problems of course) and congratulating the producer in your head for a job well done.

I also find that dancing really puts the music in perspective...

Just my 2p