What does "Dark Background " mean TT terminology

It's more than just quietness between tracks. Many components always produce a certain amount of background noise, like preamps and amplifiers as well. There is something called a noise-floor, the point of audibility for this type of noise. Record players have a noise-floor too. The lower the noise-floor, the more actual musical information surfaces, as the more delicate less audible details, resonances and so forth, get wiped out by a more prominent/higher noise-floor. A turntable's noise floor is determined not just by surface noise, but also by environmental noise coming across the air or through the feet/stand, noise from the motor, from the belt-and-pulley or idler-wheel or whatever system, and from its own bearing and plinth design's ability to cope with these various sources of noise. A turntable with an especially black background reduces the noise floor to a greater extent than one with less black backgrounds, which translates into more detail and various other types of information, which means it is audible (by not being there) during music as well. So "quiet between tracks" doesn't quite cover it. Hope this helps!!

I would add to Johnnatais's comments that a blacker background with a TT or CDP usually implies more color and constrast in the music itself. Critics sometimes use the opposite term "whitishness", to describe a lack of constrast or color. Of course all these terms are analogies...

Johnnantais

It's good to see that your always around to put in your 2 cents. Thanks for the explanation. Thanks to all that chimed in.

I'm still looking for that audiophile dictionary though.

There is a very good glossary of subjective audio terms in Stereophile. It was written by J. Gordon Holt and was published in three parts, July, August and September, 1993.

There is also a series of articles on audio jargon and phrases written by Jack English in Stereophile, May, June and December, 1993.

From page 69, August, 1993:

"dark. A warm, mellow, excessively rich quality in reproduced sound. The audible effect of a frequency response which is clockwise-tilted across the entire range, so that ouptput diminishes with increasing frequency. Compare 'light'."

The phrase "dark background" is not specifically identified. Depending on the context of its usage, "dark" could have the meaning as defined above. Alternatively, it more likely means silent, or free from noise. In the context of a turntable, I suspect that the latter is more likely to be the intended use of "dark" as an adjective.

Sometimes black background is caused by components that don't have high resolution or don't have good microdynamics. But back to your statement about your system "sounding life like". I always ask the question is the system emotionally envolving??