Black backgrounds and such

Blackness is a very good description. Just like on your TV. If you can output true black or improve black level then some low level subtleties will be visible.

It isnt the same as hiss. Hiss can be ok - provided it is just random noise.

I think of blackness as tonal. There are no spurious tones. No IMD. No added timbre from the equipment. We hear spurious tones and they are a distraction that make subtle details harder to hear.

Common forms are jitter, IMD, DAC non-linearities, speaker resonances,speaker driver resonances, power supply hum, and of course stuff in your room that vibrates at characteristic tones - gyprock, furniture, floors,furnace/AC. 

@esthios13- J.G. Holt published a glossary of terms for audio many years ago, I can try to find the link (or someone else can beat me to it), but I don’t remember if he addressed this issue in the glossary.
Hiss may or may not be source related. I use all tubes and play a lot of old records and seldom hear hiss. Some record surfaces are noisier than others though.
N.B. Unbeknownst to me, Holt and/or Stereophile converted his glossary into a book that is for sale. So, I’m not going to look for a link, given that you could buy the book if it is still in print and I’m reluctant to engage in copyright infringement.
It appears that the original book is out of print and crazy money. What appears to be an abbreviated glossary was published online by Stereophile: [url]https://www.stereophile.com/content/sounds-audio-glossary-glossary[/url]

esthlos13,
To me, hiss, hum, buzz, anything that detracts during quiet passages destroys a black backdrop. What i was mentioning is that for an amplifier that really is well designed, tube units seem to have less in the background during quiet passages. This is for units that are basically quiet quiet quiet.

If a unit is not quiet to start with, there is no black background. When it's right you get the notes splashed in color across a wide canvas. There's nothing to distract you except noise in the street and perhaps the refrigerator doing what it does. Generally, unless it's quiet in your room already, say that you're listening at night, you won't notice what I'm talking about at all.

If it's dark and quiet though, and there is a diminuendo followed by silence, you want silence. That's the whole idea. At those times, if there's noise of any sort, including a silk instead of a velvet backdrop, you notice.

Those times at night are when you really hear, not when you're blasting the dance music out. Honestly, most of the time it's just not something you even think about.


Tonight, when it's quiet and there is no traffic going by and the cat's asleep,
see if you can feel the system being on or not. Most times, you can.It's great when you have to look at the indicator lights to tell.

That's a black backdrop.

I have that J. Gordon Holt book in a box somewhere, whart. Maybe I should dig it out and put it up for sale!

@bdp24 - I was shocked, I tell you, shocked at the prices.