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What does "Warm" mean?

In his post today Paul McGowan ([email protected]) had a pretty good post on the subject of warmth.  Here is his definition: "The word usually points at a few related things. There's a slight rise in the lower midrange and upper bass — the region where male voices, cellos, lower piano notes, and the body of most instruments live. There's a softness at the very top, a rounding off of transient energy that feels easier on the ear over long sessions. And there's a sense of weight and body in the music, a presence that makes acoustic instruments feel three-dimensional rather than etched in air. When all three of those things show up together, listeners reach for "warm" because nothing else describes it as quickly."

Paul then goes on to discuss both the good and the bad of this set of characteristics.  In general I associate warmth with harmonic distortion, but prefer it to the stridency or harshness that I associate with intermodular distortion.  I think most people would agree.  Since we all live with a certain amount of distortion, more in analog than in digital playback, I wonder what others think about warmth, or lack of same, and their tolerance or lack of same in their own listening preferences. 

billstevenson
dtorc
108 posts
 

I read McGowan's description of "Warmth" this morning, and thought it was pretty good way to describe what was happening to cause such sounds like this. Someone in the Absolute Sound world once described the world as being split along a seam. On one side, there are the "Truth to sources" group, who want their system to be as accurate to the recording as possible. The other group is described as the "As you like it" crowd. They want the sound to please them, and accuracy is not the primary concern. Enjoying the sound of the music in their room is the priority. Even at the cost of being less accurate.

 

I am most definitely in the latter group. When I am listening to Bach or Hendrix or Coltrane, I want to enjoy the experience, and hope it will be a rich one intellectually, emotionally, and yes, sonically. I'm not really curious about the sounds in the studio as I am interested in what the music feels like to me on that evening. 

 

So, I have acquired equipment and have set up my room so that a certain richness of tone is supported. It's okay (to me) that it is not perfectly transparent to the sounds heard in the studio on that day, captured by those mics, mixed and mastered by all those hardworking professionals. It is As I like it, and for me, that works.

 

I'm good with those who work hard to get as much accuracy as possible. Big tent, lots of folks can fit under it. 

 

David

antigrunge2
1,574 posts
 

I would refer to ‘warmth’ where overtones are suppressed and dynamics are muted. Only  desirable in overly strident SS systems with harsh tweeters.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
7,948 posts
 

The exact opposite of bright. Inviting, smooth and fatigue free listening for hours without losing interest with no compromise in dynamics and drive. You can warm up a bright system with some more bass (lower, mid and upper). 

noromance's avatar
noromance
10,486 posts
 

I can hear the overall color of a system. Warm is literally cream through red to dull brown depending on the level or density of warmth. I've noticed that if the system sounds yellow, music loses its native color and is too sickly to listen too. The worst systems have a chromium color stripping away emotion from the soul of the music. For me, my main system is uncolored allowing the music itself to present its own spectrum.

thecarpathian's avatar
thecarpathian
6,161 posts
 

If likening it to colors, I'm partial to a nice sage or lavender warmth.

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