What does "Dark Background " mean TT terminology

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??

If I would take the statment "Emotionally envolving" literally, I have to say definitely. There were a couple of times where I played tracks that actually made my eyes water. It was so intense that it really hits your soul. Reminds me of the the movie Philadelphia when Tom Hanks played that classical piece in his apartment and he was so in to it.

Markphd

The description from "page 69 Aug,1993" makes a lot of sense. I guess I have to take it soemwhat in two ways.

First: Dark = Very rich quality-As in Dark Chocolate, Dark coffee etc.

Second: Dark = Very quiet-As in Dark winter night, Pitch- black, Dead quiet.

Now, let me talk to some of my buddies and impress them with my audiophile lingo.

Justubes, there are in fact two different issues here, but my understanding is that "dark," what you call "first dark" refers to something's tonal attributes, as in: The current Levinson amps have a dark sound.

The other issue, noise floor, or background noise, what you call "second dark" I've always heard referred to as "black" or "black background", never "dark." As in: The sound emerged from a totally black background. I've never heard the term "dark" used in this context.

In the first case, a range or degree is implied (dark, darker, very dark ;--)

The second case implies an absolute -- absolute silence. The sound never emerges from a "dark gray" background ;--)
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