What the heck do these terms mean?


I read a lot about audio equipment and some descriptions come up occasionally about the components sound qualities that to me are confusing. Most of the time I regard these descriptions as by someone with little knowledge about audio equipment that are trying to sound impressive.

Most of these terms are used in describing speakers but I have also seen them used on cables, amps , electronics of all sorts etc..
So, can someone help define these common descriptive terms?

1. Treble/ bass is dry- Huh? What does this mean?
2. Treble/bass is wet.- Huh? Again, what does this mean?
3. Organic sounding- Huh, huh?
4. Musical sounding.- What? Compared to non musical sounding?

The last one can be used with just about any description of any component or speaker performance.

There may be more...

ozzy

128x128ozzy
There is of course the myopic, I know it only when I hear it crowd... what a small sample size to live life by....

try this experiment: look at your spice rack ( count unique ) then head out to a foodie place - just do the count.....

tough to try them all....

wonder how we will know.... what’s next ????


How is it that quality science fiction or historical fiction is able to magically come alive, this despite a more than decent chance the writer wasn't on the scene, vid-cam or notepad in hand to accurately crunch the details?  Why are aesthetics so important to us?  Why do numbers so often fail when trying to accurately document emotional responses?  Sure, getting high is great, but how is it that such an objectively miserable-tasting potion like Scotch can taste so good?


In other words, escape your objective straitjacket and embrace the subjective.  It's what makes art art.  Sure, it takes a lot of science to create quality audio gear, but in the end it's the taste of a component's creator(s) that is the straw that stirs the drink. 
God, I hope there is ice, partially melted in a nice slick in the Scotch, a Talisker would be fine....

of course, there are no words available to describe Talisker....
@edcyn come over anytime, well not actually... but you get the drift ( most drifts are organic, until they’re not )
My understanding of these terms:

1. Treble is "dry" - Analogous to being etched - the treble lacks dimensionality and warmth.  Imagine a mallet striking a cymbal - it should have richness, warmth, and a (not unpleasant) sense of reverberation.  If, by contrast, it sounds like you are hitting a steel plate with a nail, that is a dry treble.  However, I am not familiar with bass being "dry"  - maybe something like a paper cone woofer that lacks depth?  I am not sure the analogy quite fits.

2. Bass is "wet" - rich, but also somewhat slow / plodding.  However, the idea of a "wet" treble is for me the inverse of a dry bass - not sure what it means or how the analogy fits.

3. Organic - integrated and of a whole.  Nothing stands out unnaturally.   You don't notice one particular quality over others, they all just fit together.  I.e., in accord with the definition: "denoting a relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole."

4. "Musical" - a BS term.  It means nothing.  Basically lazy writers use this to characterize equipment they like (or want readers to believe they like).