This was great, Steve! I'm seeing some other more common ones you didn't mention that you might start collecting for a "part 2" like: transients, warmth, texture, cool, bright, lush, neutral, holographic, decay, slam, punch, musical, sweet, bloom, body, coherence, euphonic, etched, involving, sibilance, veiled, weight.
Most of the terms in this video are referring to characteristics of sound systems. I think your ideas for a part 2 are used to describe specific sounds within music. If you want more explanation, and there is no part 2 video (I haven't checked) you may be able to find people explaining them in other places like communities of classical music fans. Also people who play a variety of instruments and alternatively audio engineers would likely know. Many audiophiles probably know because the concepts are closely related but many are more interested in the quality of audio playback than in the artistic value of the music they listen to. I am one such person. My critique of music is generally limited to "this music makes me feel emotions" but I like to be able to hear the music really well.
He forgot to mention ‘fleeced’ as in. ‘Man, did you really spend £5000 on that dac, it sounds the same as the one that I got free in this box of cereal’.
We need a Audiophile Dictionary and a Audiophile Thesaurus! We also need an "Audiophile Spotters Guide"! We also need "Nintey Nine Things You Wanted To Know About Audio, But Were Afraid To Ask". More interesting reading could include: "Does High Fidelity By Any Other Name Sound As Sweet?" Thanks for the videos and the audios!!!!!
It’d be such a great gift from you if you’d list a bunch of songs where details, dynamics, and so on are actually recorded in the songs!! So that we can clearly hear what you meant. Just in case, thanks in advance! Love this channel. You’ve earned a new subscriber!
These terms say more about the listener than the equipment. They describe what the listener notices, or feels. Which is why measurements fail to predict the experience, most of the experience happens after the sound hits the ears.
Something I love to hear that relates to the soundstage is not just that ability to reach out and touch or pinpoint each sound but also to hear the spaces, the silent spaces between the sounds. A bad pair of speakers always overlaps the sounds too much
I also think a huge amount of it comes from really good music production. When a producer is really good at sound placement then they leave the spaces too.
I feel like "fast" results in how well a speaker produces silence in all the places it's tasked to. It's like how well a projector produces the color black. Black gives everything on your screen contrast. Silence does the same thing and "fast" is the characteristic which allows your speaker to do it with precision. I also hear people use the word tight for the same phenomenon.
Thanks! I asked that question of you a while back and appreciate that you have covered those terms, now. Not that you answered me directly because it sounds like many others wanted to know also. Thanks again!
"wet" and "dry" as terms almost certainly came from the wet/dry knob on mixers that would yield a 100% "clean" or 100% "affected" signal (referring to reverb in this case)
The first time i heard a high quality system was in stereo shop where i live.They had wall to wall high end brands..i was enthralled.Standing in the middle of all this, all of a sudden unknown to me Lou Rawls was singing right behind me.Wow i coul not believe the high fidelity of this system.I knew i was already a Audiophile, but now i knew what i was looking for my future travels in searching for in a high quality system and recording.Thank you once again for another good presentation.
My first experience of 'height'. I was listening to Dire Straits, seated in my usual listening position when the puppy came in so I bent down and forward to tickle her. The song changed and since my attention was elsewhere it startled me to feel Mark Konpfler was standing in front of me. In front, sure, centred, sure but standing? It definitely sounded above my position. Exactly like if a real standing person is talking to you when you're crouched down tying your shoelaces or tickling a puppy. The moment I noticed I shut my eyes, confirmed the illusion and still with eyes closed I slowly, slowly stood up. Mark's voice stayed put! He remained standing and as I rose his voice went from being above me to being in front of me. I was moving, he was not. It blew my mind.
You experienced your mind reprograming itself. Once you hear something you can't "unhear" it. Sometimes you have to close your eyes and concentrate (mostly clear your mind). All of a sudden something "pops". Your mind gets used to hearing things a certain way and filters everything else out.
Do you still hear that every time you play that track??? If you do you have been "reprogrammed". I had it happen at my father in law's house during a tv commercial. The audio just "popped" when I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. We had the tv hooked up to a SET tube amp and a pair of Klipsch Heresy speakers. Who needs surround sound?
@@stephenbrockway5899 not so much. But I'm a tinkerer, always messing with my speaker positions, subwoofer levels, moving this changing that. I've no doubt it was an illusion but it was entertaining while it lasted.
@@stephenbrockway5899 I get what you're putting down, but hearing something like a 5.1 mix of Dark Side of the Moon or The Downward Spiral... you realize surround definitely has something to offer music.
This is the one time that I’m glad my English is poor. I don’t understand many of these audiophile terms, just used my ears for past 40+ yrs, bought the best equipment within my budget and enjoy the music. Great explanation just hope this video doesn’t influences me to chase new gears all over again. I’m a poor man that loves good music. “wet/dry” sounds only occurred in my head when I visited brothels in my younger days. 🤭😂😂
Fantastic! This was one of my favorite videos of your entire library! Even if you know what these terms mean - hearing you explain them was very helpful and educational. Thank you!
What I find myself doing lately, is purposely listening to recordings of certain genres of music, and more poorly engineered albums (CD's and vinyl), so that when I go back to much better recordings, (close mic jazz),, I am "blown away" by the sound quality of my system (McIntosh MA6900 all analog Integrated Amplifier/Macintosh MCD600 CD player/Martin Logan XT60 floor standing speakers/Thorens TD-190 turntable with a Sure M97x cartridge all through a Monster line conditioner (surge). I know it's all a bit psychological, but, I don't care. 😊
After over 10 years of retirement and COVID isolation, I've finally come around to (re)discovering 'audio'. But NOT by going out, buying a system, 'listening' and going through upgrade cycles... No, what I've done is to build a speaker system.... I started off with a couple of small single driver (65mm, 2-1/2") ported boxes (mounted beside my laptop), then added cross-overs and blue-tacked tweeters on top. My 'main' is an open baffle setup which is great, because it gives me a great baseline sound in an easily modifiable setup. Currently, it's a mess. Each speaker has 2 baffles. The tweeter (28mm, 1-1/8") silk dome) is in the smaller baffle and clamped (yes... with a couple of clamps) onto the lower (main) baffle. The lower baffle has 3 driver holes in it. Only the bottom hole is filled with its designed for 160mm (6-1/2") woofer. The other 2 driver holes are more or less empty, except that one of them has a 140mm (5-1/4") mid-range balanced in it, with more blue-tack, and sticking out about 1 inch. On the floor, I've two 300mm (12") sub-woofers leaning against the front wall. Yes, its all a work in progress. BTW, this current arrangement has only 'just' happened (today)... and overall, it sounds very 'unrefined' (I think it might be a phasing issue). It previously had a 'properly' mounted 90mm (3-1/2") mid-range (in place of the 140mm (5-1/4") mid-range) and it sounded VERY good... excellent sound-staging, but the new mid-range is about 3dB louder (I think Steve would have described the previous mid-range as 'far') and the frequency response is, by my reckoning, more balanced and closer to a 'proper' Harman Curve. (SPLs are now T-89, M-84.5 (was 82.1) and W-86.1 (sub-woofer is 90.3 but on a separate, low-pass circuit)). (On paper, the Tweeter's SPL looks a bit high but goes with jazz, so I'll leave it for a bit. Alternatively I may might attenuate it with a couple of resistors in the cross-over circuit, like I did with my laptop setup. This is the nerdy sort of stuff I've picked up doing these builds.) Plan is to mount all the drivers properly onto one baffle, and put the sub-woofer into an Open H-frame. Hopefully I'll get back my precision sound stage and a great Harman Curve. After that? Maybe ribbon tweeters? We'll see. MY POINT IS that everything I'm doing is a 'work in progress'; And through that iterative process, of changing drivers, cross-overs and trying different combinations, over periods of time, I'm observing and experiencing vast changes to audio qualities that Steve is describing. *Short of going though frequent upgrade cycles, I think it provides a great audio education.* It's been very much a trial and error process that builds an understanding of design issues and audio 'qualities'. Behind all that is a more critical listening appreciation.
First of all thank you so much, second sorry for my english :)...even with the limitation of language I have been able to clearly understand every single audiophyle term. It´s great hearing people like you that transmit pure love for music in such a clearly way, so once again, thank you very much Steve!! Before investing in any stuff I always see if you have reviewed it, and I really take into consideration your comment and, till now, it really works for me. So again THANK YOU!!! Best regards from Spain!!
Good to make sure we're all on the same page - thanks, Steve! My bugbear audiophile word is 'jitter'. I accept that it's real and that it can be measured, but so far nobody has been able to tell me what it actually sounds like to our ears.
Glad you mentioned HP Steve.One of the highlights of my life was reading my latest Absolute Sound back in the 80's. I use presence and dynamics mainly for describing a good system. No presence, may as well buy a Midi system.
Thank you for the glossary, really helpful. And I agree that Definition is hard to achieve. Bass guitars and bass drum on the same track can be tricky to follow and so provide a good test for tuning a system.
Nice to hear about al those words and what they mean in the audio world, it could make you feel all warm and fuzzy but at the same time it all appears to be quite woolly ;)
Wow!! Now that was fascinating. You caused me to reflect on the definition of each word as related to my experiences. I will better appreciate your reviews now that I have a more tightly defined language. Secondly, you caused me to realize how well my system is doing. In each definition, my audio system is doing very well. A lot to be thankful for. For example, imaging & depth... My speakers are 4.5' from the rear wall. A floor to ceiling rough faced stone fireplace is behind & between the speakers acting as a rear diffuser. No sound comes from the speakers. The sound stage is a separate entity that has so much depth that it comes from behind the stone wall. Very distinctly 3D with great tone. Transparent. Spooky! Finally.. I know how to describe it!! Thanks Steve
This is the best. Just got back into two channel "audiophileish" listening after abandoning it probably 20 years ago. This informative video really helps. Some of the audiophile youtubers need to take a lesson from you.
Most important thing "just remember to enjoy yourself.....its the #1 thing to do, just love the time listening and enjoying your records, tapes, cd's, streaming online and love your equipment also.....the simplest boombox can really make your day....honest. You dont even nees fancy or expensive at all......and as time goes by you will notice how enjoyable it all really is. Its like having a good friend to talk too. I Find my stereos amd yes I have several.....all on the lower cost side and I just love all of them.....many are speakers and receivers from thrift stores or bargain buys that sound fantastic.....truly a labor of live. My sterio systems are great companions.....they keep me company
Great job in explaining these terms. A couple of thoughts. It seems to me that if these qualities aren't in the recording, no system can create them. The quality of the recording is therefore paramount. I think of "Fast" is how well a speaker stops producing a sound, note etc. The speaker has to "hit the brakes" and get set for the next note. Very important especially in subwoofers. Again, great job as usual Steve.
Great presentation Steve. Thank you. You have helped my clarify this terminology and it is helping me to better understand and learn more about our Hi Fi system.
Been reading your reviews for years was an avid reader of Stereo Review, Audio and sometimes Stereophile. Always enjoy your reviews and videos and others on RU-vid. Keep it up
Man pretty cool to hear big ole lady NY happening around you👍👍, I may never get there.., but I connect on hearing that🙏 clever for everything that you and your wonderful Lady bring🙏
Great explanations. I am so happy because I just recently got new speakers , Wilson Sashas and I'm going ya I'm hearing all of these wonderful things I've heard about and its such a thrill. I feel my journey of finding that sound is complete. Thanks .
That was great. Attack, sustain, decay for next time. Stereophile on-line has a pretty solid glossary (and reverse glossary) of these terms and hundreds of others. Nice job, Steve. Thanks.
Dear Steve, first of all thank you for the fantastic video. I think describing each of these terms by in a specific track/recordings would be great. Something like: In this recording the soundstage is laid out like this.... If you can hear them and spot the instruments your fine.. Etc etc.
Nice setup. I had an XLS 1002. I liked it but I returned it after 4 days. It was just before the corona thing hit the fan and I was worried about the ability to return it. I also liked Tubedepot's Tubecube7 ($179) better it had a more liquid midrange. It is the same amp as a Miniwatt N3 and a fun and cheap way to try out a tube amp. Couple of months later I bought a Crown D60. It is a nice classAB amp.
Welcome. I basically did a head to head comparison between the Tubecube7 and an XLS. The Tubecube7 won me on sound quality even though the XLS was 100x more powerful. Tubecube7 3.5watts per channel vs 350 watts per channel for the XLS with 4ohm speakers. Sad part of it all the XLS wasn't much louder. The only change was the power amp and I did set the XLS for a .775 volt input to help it out. It was just a suggestion if you wanted to try something different. I love Schiit I have 3 different dacs, a vali, a Jotunheim and a saga. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Klipsch speakers.
I agree with all the terms here although I have always used to word palpable in terms of bass whack. A punchy but not bloated low end. In any case, great job defining words that we audiophiles use in abundance.
Soundstage: I got some FR + woofer speakers and the soundstage was inside the span of the speakers and lacked forward and back depth (compared to what I did to the speakers later). I held a (detached) old whizzer cone just in front of one of my FR drivers and it just sounded better. Listening a foot from the driver, it had depth, transparency and the speaker just seemed to disappear. So I made two 2" diameter cardboard cones with a 1.5" hole in the center (cone is narrow depth). I came to that shape by experimenting with the cone's shape. Now I have the cones held 1" in front of the center of the 4" FR drivers with a bit of wire and some blue tack. As well as having all the good qualities I just mentioned, I noticed that now the soundstage goes beyond the width of the two speakers! Stoked. Try it if you have FR driver speakers. But I don't know how it would go with normal driver mounting. Mine have a gap between the driver and the speaker hole (that is bass vented as well). lol So my speakers are NOT normal and also they are semi dipole and maybe my front cones are so effective cos of my unique acoustic stuff. My plan is to build proper front cones and mounting onto the FR drivers. It's an open semi horn acoustic lens. I would never go without them. See my ch.
Music after all is mostly about feeling it in the heart and our hearing SENSE, and your clarification of the meaning of your words made me think that you and I belong to the same ...philiac tribe after all of it. Mister , I liked what I heard, and your COMMON SENSE approach to the system and the speakers, and above all your recognition and your giving credit to Pierceson and the truth behind his 3D stage view of sound made me glad... I am also glad you like the clean sound as oppose to that hoody and muddy sound...after all cleanliness is next to Godliness ; but it's good for all to remember than nothing taken to the extremes is any good (other than perfect love, and that Only God is capable of) but that doesn't give US the right to compromise and take short cuts that will hurt and affect the system negatively. By the way, we all will feel much better if we learn how to enjoy the now, that present, like when we listen to some good music but always reminding ourselves to be thankful for ALL we got already, indeed... Again, I liked the meanings to your words, Mister. Hope to catch your next video...
A valuable public service. Thanks Steve. The one thing I learned was "wetness." Obviously the opposite of dry once you pointed it out, but I had never used the term. "Spaciousness" I used to call it, even though the syntax becomes awkward. Wetness is very important to me, as long as it is not overly artificially enhanced with reverb to become "soggy" (too wet).
Steve, I may be incorrect, but what you described as Tone is what I would refer to as Timbre. What I have always understood Tone to be is the relationship of the intensity between sounds in different parts of the frequency range (lows, mids and highs, generally). When you adjust the Tone Controls on your equipment, you're not adding or removing 'brassiness' or 'woodiness' to the sound. That's Timbre.
Nice video Steve. One small point I take you up on. My small bookshelf speakers in my office system are designed to be close to the wall and the soundstage on Macy Gray, Stripped, a Chesky recording, is palpably three dimensional in soundstage. There is depth, even though they are close to the wall.
Steve, fantastic job! All of the efforts by many audiophiles, to achieve much of the qualities to which you described, are at the mercy of the recording studios. When the AlexS' of the world make love to their parade of studio equalizers, mixers, compressors, etc, then each and every box diminishes (even kills) any chance of achieving the qualities you spoke of. Those engineers are children in adult bodies, vandalizing the hard work and efforts of the artists, by altering (mostly in a bad way) otherwise fantastic sounding master recordings, that are as close to real life as possible. By the way, one other audiophile word that was missing from your descriptions: "Wardrobe": An audiophile change that occurs shortly after @2:23" It is unclear if the "Wardrobe" effect is limited to waist high conditions, or if the effect is full bodied. ;-) Cheers!
17:34 "Goosbump City" is what my semi dipole FR+woofer speaker are with float mounted FR drivers, new type of tiny foil whizzers and open semi horn acoustic lenses in front of the FR drivers. Different to any other speaker and I can "watch" Sada's mouth pinpointed in one spot between the speakers and I can "see" the band playing all around her. The music is also close and far away as well as side to side and I can "see" the room. Without any one of the things I mentioned about my speakers, it just won't be as good. Sada's voice is so subtly croaky and you can hear that so well (and that seems to pinpoint here mouth). See my ch.
Working on the assumption that all reviewers are audiophiles, give this list to every reviewer you know and ask them to define them. I bet you get several different definitions for each one.
Most of those terms are words used by audio salesmen/women to pitch their product. Not all, but most. :-) I can describe audio gear using two simple phases; "It sounds good" or "it sounds like garbage." :-) "Dry" means the signal is not processed. "Wet" means it is processed. If there is reverb, delay, chorus, flanging etc. on the track, it's "wet." If not, it's "dry." ;-)
Also psychoacoustics, such as you can get out of the Urbanfun YBF IEM's if you get a good seal. The Bladerunner 2049 soundtrack has sound that has texture, it comes in waves, when it drones. You also get a lot of fast detail out of Beryllium (solid or coated) diaphragms.
I recently subscribed to Mr. Guttenberg's channel. My system is old- a Denon A/V receiver, a Pioneer CD player, and.....(ducking) a pair of Bose 401's..(Part I and Part II) . Because I am surrounded by people who hate classical music, I do most of my listening through headsets ( Sennheiser 600 series) . I've been collecting classical CDs since the 80's... I've wanted to upgrade (in a great big way) so that I can finally listen to a system which can do justice to a work like Mahler's 8th symphony (Symphony of a Thousand) ....The trouble with audiophile sites is 1) They are mostly directed towards a different crowd-jazz, rock, etc. 2) a dizzying amount of information. ... though it's better to have too much than too little. Hard to know what to do...except leap right in ..
Most systems are distorted. But not many notice it. Because you have to cross a reality where you can find a better standard of sound and that is pretty hard. Only once that is done, do you notice a lot of things happening in the music. I listened for many years to things I considered to be the best. Later I found out that, that was just good gear with a lot of distortion. Distortion can sound pretty amazing, only until you then hear the really good gear, suddenly you can then access a lot more information without it bleeding you ears.
'black' or 'inky blackness' referring to: When there is silence it is actually silent. Between tracks eg. I am amazed at how many systems are not quiet. There is always some kind of hiss or hum or transformer buzz..... and I have heard this over and over again, even in some very expensive systems.
For me an audiophile is a person who loves audio equipment and experiencing the differences between them. Of course sound quality is part of it, but since even bargain speakers are producing very good sound theses days, it's almost secondary.
Fast is more attributed to when CD 💿 Players are being reviewed. As an example I still own a boxed immaculate up a Arcam CD93T when Arcam brought out its replacement Arcam 192 many years ago now on what hifi or Hifi news here in UK 🇬🇧 reviews it stated that one of the improvements was the 192 timing was better than the 93T and so gave a faster feel well along those lines. 😊👍Steve absolutely first rate video as always yes we certainly dig it all the best from London UK 🇬🇧 🇬🇧 🇬🇧
I always thought that tonality refers to the overall sound sig (ie. v-shaped, u-shaped), while timbre is the actual tone of the instruments. Both are related to each other certainly
DRY can also be a lack of textural character to the instruments. Like Steve said, “a lack of reverberant information” ...but can be spread to more than just ambient room reverberations and to each individual sound, as well.
Anyone or any human can be an Audiophile. You don't have to have a Master's degree or a Doctorate degree or know everything about music or sound . All you need to be is be able to love listening to music. It can be from cheap speakers to high quality speakers, but if you think you know music better than me because you are a music engineer or know how to build a speaker or are a professor at a university, stand back and get out of my way. I am an Audiophile and the best.
Excellent tutorial Steve. Now I understand why Mrs. Audiophiliac can say she is not an Audiophile by your definition. There is a lot of wiggle room in your definition of an audiophile.
Thanks, helpful video! I recently got the Schiit Modius DAC and am very happy with it, however, part of me wonders if there could be more soundstage depth, but I don't even know...lol
