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.
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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.