Audio Review Glossary

...and 'dry'. WTF does that mean? Some use it (I think) to mean not much bass, but lord knows what others mean by it. Is it the case that no-one knows what these words mean but no-one (except Greg) dares to ask?

"All systems are perfectly designed to get the results they get."

Prat- pace,rhytm and timing.
Jez, wtf?

FWIW, Stereophile publish a Hi-Fi Glossary at http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?50

Mind you, whether you'll be any the wiser after reading it is another matter...

J

For those that can't be *rsed to trawl the list, their versions of the terms you listed are...

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 output diminishes with increasing frequency. Compare "light."

warm
The same as dark, but less tilted. A certain amount of warmth is a normal part of musical sound.

forward, forwardness
A quality of reproduction which seems to place sound sources closer than they were recorded. Usually the result of a humped midrange, plus a narrow horizontal dispersion pattern from the loudspeaker. See "Row-A sound." Compare "laid-back."

laid-back Recessed,
distant-sounding, having exaggerated depth, usually because of a dished midrange. See "Row-M sound." Compare "forward."

clinical
Sound that is pristinely clean but wholly uninvolving.

PRaT = Pace, Rhythm & Timing (my definition) - to which there are several references in this forum.

dry
1) Describing the texture of reproduced sound: very fine-grained, chalky. 2) Describing an acoustical space: deficient in reverberation or having a very short reverberation time. 3) Describing bass quality: lean, overdamped.

Thanx for the StereoPhool link.

That "cold" and "dark" mean nearly the opposite seems really strange to me.

I also thought "laid back" meant lacking dynamics. Wrong!!!

Oh well.

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here

tom,

synesthesia

quote:

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Originally posted by Greg Beatty:
That "cold" and "dark" mean nearly the opposite seems really strange to me.

---

Greg,

I would say Cold & Warm (and therefore Dark) are opposites (as in real life).

Cold, to me, would imply a thin and bright sound.

quote:

---

I also thought "laid back" meant lacking dynamics. Wrong!!!

---

Me too. I suspect the one would tend to follow from the other.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne at Dial.Pipex.com

These terms are best understood by listening to audio gear that exhibits them as well as gear that does not. I can imagine that people who do not have a lot of experience with differant makes of gear are more unfamiliar with this way these terms "sound" in real life. But, they DO have real meaning.

Take "dark" for example. An very old pair of Spendors (or Advents) will sound dark in comparison to newer pairs (or different makes). Upon hearing a pair of SA-1's from 1981, for instance, and then right after a pair of Kans from the mid 90's, the user will become intimately familiar with the term "dark" and its diametric opposite.

After repeated exposures to gear that make music corresponding to these terms, the user will become familiar with it.

In my case, I really didn't come to possess an appreciation for PRAT until I had an opportunity to listen to my Nait 2 against an integrated amplifier from ARC. Even the deaf would appreciate the difference.

Judd

Bjorne,
WTF = " What the f**k? "

It's an abbreviation I picked from playing online Quake too much. Sorry.

"All systems are perfectly designed to get the results they get."

Perhaps we should campaign for an update to the Unofficial FAQ, to include some of the more arcane Naimee terminology like "WAF" & "The Nagger" etc

I reject "The Nagger" as Naim terminology - it's just a unflattering habit of Mike's and one or two others, but no amount of Naim in my home could persuade me to speak of Rosie in these terms.

WAF is of course an entirely different matter.

Herman

WAF had me stumped for a long time till I found it stood for Wife Acceptance Factor. Geesh, I thought it was something really important, but then for some of you it is.

glenn

All of the terminology is fine in these HiFi reviews but they seem to avoid terms like

The sound is "too expensive for mere mortals"

OR

"sounds like it bloody well ought to if you are listening to it attached to 20,000 Pounds worth of music generation appliances"

and so on....

GEOFFP