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
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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
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.
Yea...what is it about those old JBL's?? They always seem to evoke oohhs & ahhhs back in the day. Perhaps we are now listening to our "speakers" and not the music?? Or perhaps it was a combination of alcohol and "other" substances injested or inhaled back then.... I think that 70's rock just sounded great on JBL's. I might even buy an old pair of 4312's or whatever and see if that magic is still their!
.
The first time I recognized "attack" was when I
bi-amped my Infinity Kappa 9 speakers. Oh my goodness!
Tons of headroom from the amps kicked the speakers right in
the butt.

I bought an Audio Research Ref2 Mk2 preamp several years ago
and I was very happy with it. Outstanding preamp. I read a
review of that preamp here on Audiogon. The member gave it
an excellent review, but stated, "it could stand extend
the decays a little more". Heck, I'd never even heard
of decay being a desirable attribute to a good preamp. I'd
never heard extended decays before, therefore I didn't know
what I was missing. I bought the Ref3 about a year later.
I was just sitting listening to a familiar jazz tune, and
all of a sudden a passage came up where the drummer hit a
cymbal......the sound of the cymbal decay seemed to go
linger in the air forever. Then I understood what the
reviewer meant by extended decays.
.
The first time I ever understood what imaging was ....age 12 or so and heard Dalquist DQ 10's. I was stunned to say the least- and hooked for life.