Hi-Fi Language., General speaking.

Some hi-fi general expressions concerning audio :

Airy: Spacious. Open. Instruments sound like they are surrounded by a large reflective space full of air. Good reproduction of high-frequency reflections. High-frequency response extends to 15 or 20 kHz.

Bassy: Emphasized low frequencies below about 200 Hz.
Blanketed: Weak highs, as if a blanket were put over the speakers.
Bloated: Excessive mid-bass around 250 Hz. Poorly damped low frequencies, low-frequency resonances. See tubby.
Blurred: Poor transient response. Vague stereo imaging, not focused.
Boomy: Excessive bass around 125 Hz. Poorly damped low frequencies or low-frequency resonances.
Boxy: Having resonances as if the music were enclosed in a box. Sometimes an emphasis around 250 to 500 Hz.
Breathy: Audible breath sounds in woodwinds and reeds such as flute or sax. Good response in the upper-mids or highs.
Bright: High-frequency emphasis. Harmonics are strong relative to fundamentals.

Chesty:The vocalist sounds like their chest is too big. A bump in the low-frequency response around 125 to 250 Hz.
Clear: See Transparent.
Colored: Having timbres that are not true to life. Non-flat response, peaks or dips.
Crisp: Extended high-frequency response, especially with cymbals.

Dark: Opposite of bright. Weak high frequencies.
Delicate: High frequencies extending to 15 or 20 kHz without peaks.
Depth: A sense of distance (near to far) of different instruments.
Detailed: Easy to hear tiny details in the music; articulate. Adequate high-frequency response, sharp transient response.
Dull: See dark.

Edgy: Too much high frequencies. Trebly. Harmonics are too strong relative to the fundamentals. Distorted, having unwanted harmonics that add an edge or raspiness.

Fat: See Full and Warm. Or, spatially diffuse - a sound is panned to one channel, delayed, and then the delayed sound is panned to the other channel. Or, slightly distorted with analog tape distortion or tube distortion.
Full: Strong fundamentals relative to harmonics. Good low-frequency response, not necessarily extended, but with adequate level around 100 to 300 Hz. Male voices are full around 125 Hz; female voices and violins are full around 250 Hz; sax is full around 250 to 400 Hz. Opposite of thin.

Gentle: Opposite of edgy. The harmonics - highs and upper mids - are not exaggerated, or may even be weak.
Grainy: The music sounds like it is segmented into little grains, rather than flowing in one continuous piece. Not liquid or fluid. Suffering from harmonic or I.M. distortion. Some early A/D converters sounded grainy, as do current ones of inferior design. Powdery is finer than grainy.
Grungy: Lots of harmonic or I.M. distortion.

Hard: Too much upper midrange, usually around 3 kHz. Or, good transient response, as if the sound is hitting you hard.
Harsh: Too much upper midrange. Peaks in the frequency response between 2 and 6 kHz. Or, excessive phase shift in a digital recorder's low-pass filter.
Honky: Like cupping your hands around your mouth. A bump in the response around 500 to 700 Hz.

Mellow: Reduced high frequencies, not edgy.
Muddy: Not clear. Weak harmonics, smeared time response, I.M. distortion.
Muffled: Sounds like it is covered with a blanket. Weak highs or weak upper mids.

Nasal: Honky, a bump in the response around 600 Hz.

Piercing: Strident, hard on the ears, screechy. Having sharp, narrow peaks in the response around 3 to 10 kHz.
Presence: A sense that the instrument in present in the listening room. Synonyms are edge, punch, detail, closeness and clarity. Adequate or emphasized response around 5 kHz for most instruments, or around 2 to 5 kHz for kick drum and bass.
Puffy: A bump in the response around 500 Hz.
Punchy: Good reproduction of dynamics. Good transient response, with strong impact. Sometimes a bump around 5 kHz or 200 Hz.

Rich: See Full. Also, having euphonic distortion made of even-order harmonics.
Round: High-frequency rolloff or dip. Not edgy.

Sibilant: "Essy" Exaggerated "s" and "sh" sounds in singing, caused by a rise in the response around 6 to 10 kHz.
Sizzly: See Sibilant. Also, too much highs on cymbals.
Smeared: Lacking detail. Poor transient response, too much leakage between microphones. Poorly focused images.
Smooth: Easy on the ears, not harsh. Flat frequency response, especially in the midrange. Lack of peaks and dips in the response.
Spacious: Conveying a sense of space, ambiance, or room around the instruments. Stereo reverb. Early reflections.
Steely: Emphasized upper mids around 3 to 6 kHz. Peaky, nonflat high-frequency response. See Harsh, Edgy.
Strident: See Harsh, Edgy.
Sweet: Not strident or piercing. Delicate. Flat high-frequency response, low distortion. Lack of peaks in the response. Highs are extended to 15 or 20 kHz, but they are not bumped up. Often used when referring to cymbals, percussion, strings, and sibilant sounds.

Telephone-like: See Tinny.
Thin: Fundamentals are weak relative to harmonics.
Tight: Good low-frequency transient response and detail.
Tinny: Narrowband, weak lows, peaky mids. The music sounds like it is coming through a telephone or tin can.
Transparent: Easy to hear into the music, detailed, clear, not muddy. Wide flat frequency response, sharp time response, very low distortion and noise.
Tubby: Having low-frequency resonances as if you're singing in a bathtub. See bloated.

Veiled: Like a silk veil is over the speakers. Slight noise or distortion or slightly weak high frequencies. Not transparent.

Warm: Good bass, adequate low frequencies, adequate fundamentals relative to harmonics. Not thin. Also excessive bass or midbass. Also, pleasantly spacious, with adequate reverberation at low frequencies. Also see Rich, Round. Warm highs means sweet highs.
Weighty: Good low-frequency response below about 50 Hz.

Where did this come from and does anyone else use it as the definitions of the words they string together?


Mark W.

nice work. I am familar with about 90% of these... and that is how I would describe them too.. Although, I've never heard of honky used in listening to audio.

I do not know if i quite understand your questions...even though, here's my answer:

- They are only basic and general audio expressions.
As you might know, audio has its own language. You find them in every audio articles, magazines, net page or books.
I simply collected the most common ones and post them here.
Of course, i do not pretend they are the "right ones"...that's the reason i post them in a "Theory" topic.
If you have some new audio or even slang audio expressions, that you think are more suitable, feel free to post them here.

This post has been edited by clint e. on April 17, 2007 11:54 am

I posted something similar somewhere on ST. I borrowed it from a member from AK. and gave credit to that person in my post. From what I have read, it could very much be the same thing, or very similar. Not sure and it doesnt really matter either.

I'll look for my post. and compare.

elroy

Well, maybe that guy borrowed it from another guy... you never know...maybe even from me... I was in another forums before AK and ST...

Oh ya, I thought it was useful thats why I posted it, but I cant find it, and it may have gotten lost when we changed servers in the very begining.

Its a valuable tool for people like me, for when I do a review I can use big words and actually know what they mean.

elroy

You said it all.
<It’s a valuable tool> but, not only for you amigo. But for everyone who has audio has a hobby.

sounds like this is the oracle of subjective adudio terms...still a good effort

Decibel

What is a Decibel…Practically Speaking

The human ear is capable of identifying a wide range of sounds. The level of sound the ear first begins to recognize (threshold of hearing) has been determined to be .0002 microbars. A microbar is a measurement of sound pressure similar to the inch being a measurement of length. The small amount of pressure causes the ear membrane to move less than the diameter of a single atom! A sound loud enough to begin to create a sensation of pain (threshold of pain) represents a sound pressure that is 3,162,300 times more than the threshold of hearing! These are the limits in our range of hearing. Of course, if we used the microbar to describe sounds, the numbers would be very cumbersome. In addition, it would be difficult to comprehend any comparisons.

Early acousticians came up with a simple method of comparing two sounds. A sound that was perceived to be twice as loud as another was said to be one Bel greater in sound level. The Bel was used as a unit of comparison. It is not a unit of measure. Its namesake, Alexander Grahm Bell, was a pioneer in the science of audiology (the study of human hearing). It soon became apparent this unit of comparison was not very useful in describing the difference between similar sounds. A small unit of comparison, the decibel, was established. One decibel (1 dB) is one-tenth of a Bel. Since a decibel is one-tenth of a Bel, then 10 decibels (10 dB) would equal one Bel. In other words, a sound that is twice as loud as another sound could be described as being 10 decibels (10 dB) louder. By definition, one decibel (1 dB) represents the smallest change in volume a human ear can perceive. The average ear, however, can only detect a 3 dB change.

Quote from :
The Internet Sound Institute

What about the old, plain & simple

Sounds GOOOOOOOD !!!

Jorge

sounds good.

this is something i've found that translates across different classes of speaker. basically a good speaker will sound good. take something like a KLH 17 and then B&W's flagship Nautilus. the margin between these two classes of speaker is huge, yet after a two hour listening listening session with the Nautilus, the KLH 17 still sounded good to my ear later on, sounded great in fact.

sounds good.

... take something like a KLH 17 and then B&W's flagship Nautilus. the margin between these two classes of speaker is huge, yet after a two hour listening listening session with the Nautilus, the KLH 17 still sounded good to my ear later on, sounded great in fact.

May i ask you what type of Nautilus are you talking about ?
The B&W Nautilus, Nautilus SCM1, Nautilus 800, Nautilus 801, Nautilus 802, Nautilus 803, or Nautilus 805 ?
Did you know that B&W Nautilus 800 Series are used in Abbey Road Studios?!

I´ll risk a guess.

The original Nautilus, and for many the only one worthy of that name, the "Snail", as seen in Scott´s personal pic in his profile.

Jorge

yep, the 'racing snails'.