High End jargon; your take


I've been around here for a good while now and read these terms frequently. Looked at some of the audio glossaries on the net. I still don't feel I have a good handle on their meaning. What do these terms mean to you?

"Tight" as in "the bass became more tight."

"Hi Fi" as in "it sounds "hi fi" (as opposed to high end)

"Warm" as in "warm bass."

Thanks
foster_9

Showing 5 responses by blindjim

My own group has become far more civil lately.

They started out as a bunch of blind Squirels juggling knives, and are now less ambitious as they just sit around in the same room and compulsively text message each other all day... if they would all just get the same ring tones I'd be lots happier.
Tight = What you feel when the bartender says, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."

HI Fi = your self congratulatory response when you realize you're the last one there, thinking you won, but couldn't say High Five!

Warm = The feeling you get when being awakened by the neighborhood stray 'cause you couldn't make it into the house the night before.... it's just like being awakened by a horse, except less pressure.

How about this still more ambiguous term?

"Musical" ...as in "it was exceptionally musical."

I'm thinking it's not the sound of pots and pans or cats in heat, unless you're in the Bahamas or the alley passed out again, trying to give the stray with the bladder problem the slip by taking an alternative route.

Or maybe something with Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers in it.
Yep..

But the uncertainty and subjectivity doesn’t stop there, for many others remain in ordinary use, some being offered up as editorial staples .

Such as…

TUNEFUL
ORGANIC
SWEET
DRY
RICH
SPACIALITY
DYNAMIC
SLAM
WET
INNER GLOW
COOL
PRAT = PACE, RHYTHM AND TIMING ... isn't that what the performers are supposed to have going for them already? How is sound reproduced without these elements…. Unless you have your thumb on the LP as it spins.

Use only the denotative definition, even in context, and many descriptions become laughable rather than laudable… and the connotative usage, still in context, remains ambiguous pointing towards yet more vagary.

The truly funny thing, is the use of these and so many other terms are so widespread and accepted without much afterthought. As if we all have the same degree of ‘Sweet’ attached to that word or to any of the others.

In lieu of this, the attempts to reveal the essence of what has been divined continues to be entertaining, yet provides only a general sense of a thing and not it’s thumbprint. Consequently the most important epithet around these parts will eternally be:
Experience.
….or the “Try it for yourself”, suggestion which is the declarative test dispelling further speculation, with logistics and finances, being for so many, the true bars to this insightful event.

Perhaps, following the next glowing ‘redress’ of some vaunted high end appliance, the editorialist will then define that description by degrees. lol
...usually don't drink?

Sheesh. I had to quit drinking to afford the gear I've bought here!

Otherwise I'd have went with just better, er, tighter, warmer, wetter, 2.1 PC speakers.