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You'll know it when you hear it

When I first joined Audiogon several years ago, I kept reading all of these descriptions of sounds that stereo components make. None of the descriptions made sense. I started buying and selling equipment, upgrading along the way, and sure enough, I started to experience all of the terms that were used describe the sounds that members talked about.

My neighbor bought a $150 reciever and a little pair of $100 speakers from Best buy and he was as pleased as punch. He is a photographer and painter and uses the system as background music while he works. He invited me over for a listen and I started talking about things like the lack of inner detail, soundstage, depth…..and he looked at me like I was crazy and had no idea what I was talking about. So I just shut up after realizing that there was no way he could understand what I was talking about.

Below are some of the terms that I hear all of the time here on Audiogon and my experience hearing them for the first time.

Disclaimer: These are my experiences and are not meant to disparage or promote any manufacturer. I am not a dealer or retailer.
………….
Thin Sounding…….Audio Research SP9…….I kept it two weeks and sold it. After hearing it, I knew what thin sounding meant.

Black Background……..Audio Research LS-10……The first time I heard this preamp was scary, music seemed to come out of nowhere. I then understood what a black background was.

Inner Detail……Audio Research Ref3

Wide and Fat Sound……….My Dokorder reel-to-reel of 35 years ago.

Below are some terms that I had heard of, and the first time I experienced them I understood that, “oh, so that’s what they are talking about”

Sibilance

Extended Decays

Sweet Spot

Bloated Bass

Fast / Speed

Attack

Bass Extension (I thought that I knew what this was….when I got my Infinity Betas, I really understood what bass extension was)

Front-To-Back

SoundStage

Imaging

Clinical Sounding

Fatiguing

Warm Sounding

Tubey (my Audio Research Ref 1)

Honey Colored Sound…..I’ve never experienced this one. I hear people describe some Conrad Johnson as honey colored.

Liquid / Dry

Bright / Dark

Etched

Rolled Off

Air Around The Instruments……I was always curious about this one. When I finally heard it, I thought wow!

Forward Sounding
…………….

Please share your first time experiences of experiencing an audiophile term and immediately recognizing it without having it explained to you. Feel free to add additional terms and your experiences recognizing it for the first time. You may also add comical anecdotes of you trying to explain any of these terms to a non-audiophile.
128x128mitch4t
ballan
184 posts
 
It's just a way for people to explain subjective thoughts. People into wine and art use similar language. When I get together with friends to discuss music, we explain music and musicians in subjective terms.

A lot of "audiophiles" don't understand how subjective music listening is. They tend to think in absolute terms and fundamental ways. I think this is dangerous. If people enjoy music on their system (no matter what the setup and cost), it's not anyone else's place to have a prejudice against them. You are allowed to have an educated opinion, but not a prejudice.

The difference between "objective" and "subjective" opinions, as well as the difference between an "opinion" and a "prejudice" is something we should put more thought and care into. Not just with audio, but life in general.
mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
.
I remember the first time reading here where a guy mentioned that he watched his speakers 'disappear'. For the life of me, I couldn't imagine what he was talking about. As my system improved and the first time I witnessed it in my system, I was stunned......they really did disappear.

Try explaining disappearing speakers to a non-audiophile.
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Ag insider logo xs@2x
samzx12
1,220 posts
 
I like this thread :) Good post.
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
The one that has always had me thinking about exactly what is meant by its use was this: the difference between the performance taking place in your room versus you being transported to where the performance is taking place.

Just the idea of this (the distinction) was confusing to me. That is until I heard Ray Kimber's ISOTEK? recording of a male choral group played through four channels of Emmlabs digital/Pass Labs amps/Sony speakers at this year's RMAF. For the first time in my admittedly limited experience, I was completely and utterly transported to the stone church in which that recording was made. It was stunning. The singers were there in front of me and the physical dimensions of the room in which I was listening disappeared and were replaced by the walls of the church.

Prior to that experience, the best I could say is that on rare and successful occasions, a small ensemble, say bass and piano, solo cello, or simple vocals, was pretty believably being performed in the room in which I was sitting, and often in my room by my system.

Both of these can be quite remarkable, but now having experienced each clearly, I understand the distinction and think the former is much more difficult to achieve and probably a better goal for which to aim.

I have not tried to explain any of this to my non audiophile friends. They view my interest in audio about the same as they view my interest in competitive indoor badminton. To most people, music is about MP3, Bose and badminton is about plastic racquets and backyard barbecues.
davt's avatar
davt
505 posts
 
Mitch4t, that is a good argument for vintage audio. I remember in the 70's when I was in high school, going to freinds houses, listening to Aqualung and various pink floyd and led zepplin lp's while enjoying the ritual of the bud, and in fact, many times the speakers did physically disappear. I need to find me some of those old JBL's cause no matter how much single malt I drink those Verity's are sittin' right there on the floor.
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