Need definitions of: Dark; Warm; and Bright

Errr, Saussure 101.

As atmasphere say, there needs to be a pretty broad consensus as to what a given word refers to, for speakers of a given language to communicate with each other.  Obviously, meaning will still be fuzzy around the edges.

When words a used *metaphorically*, this adds a whole new layer of fuzziness, but people don't realize how much metaphorical usage is part of everyday speech.

Bright/dark has to do with visual perception (light, color) not sound.
Warm has to do with touch or taste.

It works the other way too: you can talk about a loud color.

BTW, this has nothing to do with synaesthesia, it's just standard metaphorical usage.

But metaphorical usage is open to a greater range of interpretation, because it's figurative, and because a given instance will have a different range of connotations (rather than denotations) for a given individual.

as ralph said

Audiophiles have been using these terms with these meanings for decades FWIW.

no point arguing... if you are new, refer to the glossaries i mentioned in an earlier post to understand these and other terms often used

folks who are here to debate ad nauseum are just wasting time... these terms are well known and understood among people who have been been in this pursuit, are commonly used to convey the sound of systems or components

about a month ago i had a good friend in my driving cohort who is fairly new to high end hifi... i had him over and demonstrated to him the sonic differences between analog and digital, the differences between a tubed dac vs a solid state one, a solid state vs a tube amp ... these words were immediately understood by him as we listened and discussed the music that was playing, swapping back and forth

Saying that tubes may be warmer and S.S. may be most of the times brighter dont push us way much along the road...

Actually it does if you understand that this phenomena is entirely the result of distortion- the tubes make the lower harmonics which the transistors do not; thus resulting in tube amps sounding warm and solid state sounding bright, even though on the bench both measure flat.

This also give the designer access to what to do about it; if a solid state amp were made with the same distortion signature as a tube amp it would also sound like one. The relative output impedances of tubes and solid state is almost irrelevant since the ear has a tipping point where it emphasizes tonality induced by distortion over tonality induced by frequency response error. That is why a tube amp potentially can sound more neutral even though it might not be as flat on a certain speaker as a solid state amp.


This is not about tubes/solid state though, its about **distortion**. We've proven that if a solid state amp has a tube-like distortion signature it will very hard to tell it from a really good tube amp. While this might appear subjective (which is what these terms are about) in the end this is the sort of thing that's easy to measure these days as well.