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Master Thread: Are measurements Everything or Nothing?

Yeah, some of the classical guitar tracks I played on those speakers were among the most satisfying I’ve ever heard them.
From those measurements, that's a surprise. It might do the "hyperrealistic" thing with solo guitar where it's "in the room", sounds like a really nice classical guitar, but the details in the playing are missing, but I doubt you'd fall for that as others do, even if you do look for that realism thing overall.
 
It was fascinating to read some of your predictions about how you think those loudspeakers sound just by looking at the measurements.

Maybe some of your predictions come close to how they sound, but it is also pretty obvious there is a lot of guesswork at work and I would put way more trust in your descriptions if you had actually experienced those loudspeakers first-hand and just told me what you heard in those listening sessions. At least to me, this confirms how important the subjective part of a review can be in supplementing the measurements, and if any of you guys would take the time to describe in detail what you heard I'm sure it would be pretty straightforward information without any unnecessarily flowery choice of words. :)
 
without any unnecessarily flowery choice of words.
This is the difficult part... translations may be needed in that case for people only familiar with 'flowery words and thus may be hard(er) to describe sounds in non-flowery language.

I made a list of 'translations' and explanations but may need some additions. When anyone knows some more words with descriptions please let me know so I can update the list below.

Airy – Describes the sense of space and openness of the music. Best heard in cymbals where the shimmer is realistic. This mostly has a relation with treble extension. It should be mentioned that not all well-extended headphones sound ‘airy’ and some not so well extended headphones can still sound sort of ‘airy’. The superlative (exaggerated) form of an ‘airy’ sound is ‘ethereal‘ where the sound feels very ‘fragile’ and overly ‘delicate’.

Analytical – A term used to describe a product that produces a high level of detail in reference to the music being played back. In technical terms, this means the tonal response is between ‘flat’ and slightly elevated above 3kHz.

Balance – This could mean balance between channels or sometimes people use the term to describe Tonal Balance.
Balance between channels means the stereo image is right in the middle. In some cases, balance can be correct for a certain part of the frequency range and not for higher or lower frequencies. This can be spotted in measurements. In sound, it can lead to a fuzzy position of a stereo image.
Also, one-sided seal loss with headphones can cause this when bass is less prominent in the leaky side. On measurements with a perfect seal this won’t be obvious.

Bassy – This is the lower end frequency of human hearing. Bass can be measured in quantity (heaviness) and quality. Other bass descriptors are muddy, punchy, rubbery, boomy, and fat.
The bass area is between 25Hz and 300Hz but harmonics can go as high as 5kHz. Peaks and dips in the frequency range between 20Hz and 500Hz can make the bass sound different from realistic. For descriptors and the frequency range, they fall into see the chart above.
The opposite of bassy is ‘Lean

Bass (Lows) – Can be divided into 4 ranges: sub-bass (10Hz-25Hz) this is not audible as tones or notes but deep rumbles in movies are an example. When it is absent most people won’t miss it. That is once you heard what bass extension does it can add to the musical experience. For instance, with Piano music where pedals are used this lowest part can make the piano sound more real.
Lower bass (25Hz-50Hz) is the part of the bass where the deepest musical notes are. A small and gentle roll-off usually isn’t very audible. A substantial roll-off (-10dB) is quite audible.
Bass (50Hz-120Hz) is the part where most of the ‘body’ of bass instruments is. Sharp dips or peaks and emphasis or subdued parts here can color the bass, make it sound boomy, exaggerated, full, tight, dis-attached or muddy. The best sounding headphones/speakers have a flat response in the area. Some folks prefer substantially more bass than others. When traveling a bit more bass usually is welcome. High-bass (120Hz-250Hz) is where the harmonics of most bass sound-producing instruments are. A small peak there may make bass sound tighter. Too much (>5dB) can make bass sound muddy and boomy. A dip in this area can make bass instruments sound ‘wrong’ or ‘dis-attached’. This is where bass appears to be ‘apart’ from the music. Some people actually prefer a dip, certainly when the lower frequencies are elevated.

Bloat – Bloat is present usually in the mid bass. When frequencies below 400Hz are lifted opposite the mids and highs the bass can sound ‘bloated’ and overdone. When there is a dip around 150Hz this is the opposite of bloated and the bass sounds dis-attached.
Bloated bass often also causes ‘bloom‘ in male voices. In this case the male voice sounds unnaturally bassy/full and lacks clarity.
When only the part below 150Hz is boosted the bass doesn’t sound ‘bloated’.

Bright/Brightness – A small emphasis of upper mids. The frequency band between 1kHz and 7kHz. Brightness is a wider bandwidth form of Clarity + Detail, when exaggerated even more it becomes Shrill.

Clarity – A few dB emphasis between 1kHz and 3kHz can add some clarity for voices and instruments. The opposite (a dip) of clarity (seen a lot in headphones) could be described as Laid back, Sweet, lacking Attack. An exaggerated form is shrill, cold, hard.

Coarse
– is another word for Grainy or Gritty and describes uneven treble response with deep dips and peaks. Note that measurements made with measurement gear using a fake pinna can show substantial peaks and dips above 5kHz caused by the fake pinna but may not indicate roughness nor should one try to EQ this out.

Chocolaty – Describes a sweet and lush sound.

Cold – a general upward tilt in the frequency range between 300Hz and 3kHz. The opposite is warmth.

Congestion – Something sounds congested when it the sound is muffled and not very dynamic. It usually is a combination of emphasis in warmth and laid back sound / lacking in clarity.

Compressed – This can mean 2 things. There is compressed data and compressed music. Compressed data means that a file has been shrunk in size. Most people have heard of ZIP and/or RAR where one or more files are smaller in size so they can be sent as an attachment. This is lossless compression where the file can be reconstructed to its original size and then can be used. In Audio there are many lossless formats. The biggest difference with something like ZIP is that a ZIP file needs to be ‘unpacked’ before one can use the file (song or album) where audio files are de-compressed while the song is being played back. One can also compress files by leaving out data which can not be recovered later. The most well known lossy compression files are JPG (for pictures) and MP3 for music but there are many more formats. During the compression (encoding) one can usually select how much one throws away. More compression = more loss of fidelity.
When music is compressed the louder parts in a recording and lowered in volume and/or softer parts of a recording are amplified. Usually this is done in studios to get a more even sound. There is a fine line between this being done craft-fully (usually for each instrument its own compression) and it being overdone in dramatic ways. This sadly is very common for most popular recordings. Search for ‘loudness wars’.
When a headphone sounds compressed it usually is bit bloated sounding and lacks realism/clarity/dynamics.

Crisp – is another description of having clarity, an exaggerated form is shrill. The opposite is laid back.

Dark/Darkness
– Describes a gradual downward slope of frequencies above 3kHz often combined with an emphasis on bass/lower mids. An exaggerated form is Muffled. The opposite is Shrill

Decay – How a sound/note/resonance fades away over time. This is not always visible in the frequency response but could be visible in Cumulative Spectral Decay (Waterfall) plots. When there is some clarity and no mid bass emphasis most people describe the decay as fast.

Depth – How far away the instruments spacing is from back to front. In headphones this is not always perceived as such. Sometimes a gradual downward slope between 300Hz and 10kHz can also give a sense of depth imitating a greater distance from an actual music performance.

Detail – When something sounds detailed the frequency band between 1kHz and 3kHz is usually audibly flat or neutral and is more or less flat between 3kHz and 10kHz or has some mild emphasis (a few dB) or a peak in that part of the frequency range. An exaggerated form is Edgy, Sharpness, Sibilant.

Dry – Too little reverb or echo is used. Is also used to describe ‘flat’ and ‘boring’ studio recordings. Opposite of lively

Dynamic – When a headphone sounds dynamic it sounds ‘lively’ and instruments and voices ‘pop-out’ of clearly. It is the opposite of a relaxed, muffled or compressed sound. When a recording is truly dynamic there is a substantial difference between soft sounds and peaks.
You need to play the music loud to hear small details. Funnily enough when you can hear small details already at lower playback levels the sound is actually compressed yet many say, incorrectly, this is a dynamic sound.
The word dynamic is also used to describe a type of headphone driver (the most common type) where a magnet and voice-coil is used to create sound.
Then there is also dynamic range in an electrical sense. This describes how many difference in decibel there is between the signal and the noise and distortion products.
And finally Dynamic Range as in DR-rating. This describes how the difference between the average levels and peak levels in a recording.
Usually the recordings with DR ratings between 10 and 20 sound more realistic than recordings between 2 and 5.

Edgy or Etched – Between 3kHz and 7kHz, as a subset of brightness and Detailed, an exaggerated form of brightness/detail is Edgy, Etched, Sharpness, Sibilant. The opposite (a dip) can be described as lacking Finesse, dis-attached Treble.

Ethereal – Describes a slight treble elevated sound that feels ‘fragile’ and slightly unnatural but otherwise neutral and pleasant.

Finesse – This describes fine and delicate details heard in music. When one can hear small details clearly, realistic and well defined as in not ‘coarse’.
The opposite of finesse is grainy.

Forward – When voices and instruments pop-out. This usually is caused by a mild peak in the 1kHz to 2kHz range. A small peak is usually not very detrimental to the sound at all. The opposite of forward is ‘laid-back’.

Flat – When the frequency response does not deviate in the audible range something is considered flat.
When this word is used with headphones or speakers one usually finds that it doesn’t color the sound (too much). Strangely enough not everyone that describes a sound as flat it actually is flat. So one man’s ‘flat’ can be another ones bassy, boring, mid-rangy, or sharp sound.

Fun – This often describes a sound with elevated treble (>5kHz) and bass (<100Hz), also called ‘U shaped’ or ‘bathtub shaped’ sound.

Grainy – Also called ‘gritty’ and describes a sound that lacks finesse. The finer details are rendered a bit coarse. Often this is caused by lots of sharp peaks and deep dips in the treble area above 6kHz.

Harsh – This describes a sound similar as grainy but more concentrated in the midrange from 1kHz to 5kHz rather than in the treble range. Often distortion levels >1% in the midrange and or sharp peaks in that frequency range are the cause.

Highs – Also called treble, these are the upper frequencies above 5kHz.

Imaging – When a headphone or speaker images well it is very easy to pinpoint where instruments are and that image is stable and ‘sharp’. This requires a flat frequency response that is also matched between the two drivers, and detailed recordings. Slightly angled headphone drivers can have better ‘imaging’ as they make use of the ear-shape.

Laid back – describes a relaxed sound signature and is caused by an audible and rather wide dip around 2-4kHz. It is the opposite of forward and dynamic. Upper mids and lower treble is under-emphasized and is found to be pleasant for longer listening sessions when the dip is just slight (between 5 and 10dB).

Lush – is similar to Laid back. It describes a rich, warm-pillowy sound usually with slightly elevated lower frequencies and rather wide dip around 2-4kHz with a good treble quality that is a bit higher in level than when said to be laid back.

Microphonics – sensitivity to touch. It could be present in some electronic components but in the case of headphones it refers to mechanically ‘conducted’ sounds of the cable. When one touches the ear cups of a headphone one can hear this quite clearly. Depending on how a cable is coupled to the cup touching the cable does a similar thing but attenuated compared to touching the cups directly.
Cloth covered, thick and rigid cables usually are worse in this aspect then softer and thinner smooth surface cables. When microphonics are bad you can hear a cable rubbing against clothes when moving when music isn’t even playing that loud. Some are annoyed others simply don’t mind.

Mids/Midrange – Frequencies between roughly 250Hz and 4kHz. One can divide this in lower mids (250Hz – 500Hz) where the ‘body’ of voices and instruments is. The mids (500Hz – 1500Hz) and upper mids (1.5kHz to 4kHz). In the upper mids the ‘clarity’ of voices and instruments as well as ‘attack’ of musical instruments can be found.

Muddy – Describes the sound of elevated lower mids/upper bass where the bass is not clearly defined and ‘blends in’ with the rest of the music in an unnaturally elevated way.

Muffled – sound is when it would appear as though the sound is coming from a speaker with a wool blanket draped over it. Lacking in clarity and treble. Frequencies above 2kHz are subdued and or rolled-off.

Natural – When a headphone sounds natural all instruments and voices are reproduced in a realistic manner without coloration, a correct stereo-image and with a dynamic sound.

Neutral – and neutral are closely the same but neutral is more about the reproduction of sound not being colored. All frequencies are reproduced at the proper level.
There can be consensus about how a headphone should measure to be considered neutral.
However, there are many people stating a headphone or speaker sounds neutral to them but in reality is quite colored. The term neutral used in subjective reviews thus can be considered a meaningless term unless comparisons are made to known neutral headphones.

Openness – Has little to do with a headphone being open or closed. It usually refers to a detailed and neutral sounding headphone where instruments have a clear separation. Headphones with a good clarity are often described as being ‘open’ sounding.

Punch – powerful bass and drum hits. A small emphasis around 100-150Hz can relatively boost harmonics of bass drum/bass.

Rolled-off – Sound can be rolled-off in the lows and in the treble or both. Rolled-off bass is lacking in lower bass and can have slightly subdued bass as well. When the treble is rolled off frequencies above 10kHz usually are low in amplitude. When this happens usually the sound is not considered airy and lacks sparkle.

Sharpness – An emphasis between 2kHz and 6kHz can give instruments and voices the impression of being ‘highlighted’ and sharply detailed.

Shrill – An exaggerated form of sharpness usually with an emphasis between 4kHz and 10kHz and is unpleasant, shrieky.

Sibilant / sibilance – A sharp peak in the frequency band between 5kHz and 8kHz can emphasize the ‘s’ sounds in words. A high peak (>5dB) can sound piercing and sharp and is usually fatiguing and unpleasant during longer listening sessions. A lower peak between 3dB and 5dB can create an illusion of ‘detail’ in music and ‘sharply’ defined instruments. In the long run also fatiguing.

Signature – the overall tonal balance of a headphone. One could describe a signature in many ways as found in this article.

Soft – can be used to describe the loudness (amplitude as in how loud the sound is) or the ‘texture’ of the treble. For the latter it can describe the amplitude opposite the bass and mids or define treble quality. When treble is not splashy elevated, sibilant or coarse but ‘sweet’ and pleasant it is often described as soft. When the frequency response is quite ‘flat’ between 6kHz and 15kHz without sharp peaks and dips the treble quality usually is good and depending on the relative level can be said to be soft or sweet.

Soundstage – Describes in 3d terms (height, width and depth) where one perceives recorded instruments. For headphones it is very rare to hear instruments ‘projected’ clearly meters in front of you without special recordings or software. In the vast majority of cases sounds are between left and right ear only. For headphones instead of soundstage the word headstage is used.
This describes how well instruments are defined between left and right and how ‘sharp’ they can be pinpointed. One has to realize the stereo image is created in the studio during mixing/mastering process and is artificial in most cases. For headphones there is crossfeed which makes some recordings easier to listen to but this too is just a ‘trick’.

Sparkle – Usually caused by a slight emphasis in the (upper) treble and describes vibrant treble.

Spatial – describes how sounds can be heard all around you. Requires digital trickery to pull this of with headphones. Usually to get spatial sound multiple speakers are required placed around the listening position. Related terms: crossfeed and soundstage/headstage.

Sweet – Corresponds with ‘lush’. It describes a ‘soft’ sound signature usually with slightly elevated lows and soft (not grainy or splashy) highs.

Timbre – The tone of a note from an instrument. Timbre is determined by the ratio between the fundamental tone and its harmonics. Headphones with a ‘flat’ tonal response should have the proper timbre. When the tonal balance is not flat timbre can be affected and changed. This can sometime be for the better or worse and depends on the recording. Do note that in studios timbre of each individual instrument is often adjusted to fit in the recording. This can’t be undone.

Tonal Balance – describes how ‘flat’ a headphone is. When the bass is boosted the tonal balance is bassy, when treble is boosted the tonal balance is ‘bright’. When a headphone is described as tonally balanced no specific frequency bands are popping out or are subdued.
The real snag here is that some owners may feel a headphone is tonally balanced but in reality it may be bassy, bass-shy, warm, cold, midrangy or bright for instance. Tonally balanced = realistic sounding with no emphasis on anything.
Objectively tonal balance is difficult to prove headphone measurements can differ substantially between test-rigs.

Transparent – Similar to clarity it is a clean clear open and detailed quality.

Warm/warmth – a general downward tilt in the frequency range between 300Hz and 3kHz. The opposite is cold.
 
This is the difficult part... translations may be needed in that case for people only familiar with 'flowery words and thus may be hard(er) to describe sounds in non-flowery language.

I made a list of 'translations' and explanations but may need some additions. When anyone knows some more words with descriptions please let me know so I can update the list below.

Airy – Describes the sense of space and openness of the music. Best heard in cymbals where the shimmer is realistic. This mostly has a relation with treble extension. It should be mentioned that not all well-extended headphones sound ‘airy’ and some not so well extended headphones can still sound sort of ‘airy’. The superlative (exaggerated) form of an ‘airy’ sound is ‘ethereal‘ where the sound feels very ‘fragile’ and overly ‘delicate’.

Analytical – A term used to describe a product that produces a high level of detail in reference to the music being played back. In technical terms, this means the tonal response is between ‘flat’ and slightly elevated above 3kHz.

Balance – This could mean balance between channels or sometimes people use the term to describe Tonal Balance.
Balance between channels means the stereo image is right in the middle. In some cases, balance can be correct for a certain part of the frequency range and not for higher or lower frequencies. This can be spotted in measurements. In sound, it can lead to a fuzzy position of a stereo image.
Also, one-sided seal loss with headphones can cause this when bass is less prominent in the leaky side. On measurements with a perfect seal this won’t be obvious.

Bassy – This is the lower end frequency of human hearing. Bass can be measured in quantity (heaviness) and quality. Other bass descriptors are muddy, punchy, rubbery, boomy, and fat.
The bass area is between 25Hz and 300Hz but harmonics can go as high as 5kHz. Peaks and dips in the frequency range between 20Hz and 500Hz can make the bass sound different from realistic. For descriptors and the frequency range, they fall into see the chart above.
The opposite of bassy is ‘Lean

Bass (Lows) – Can be divided into 4 ranges: sub-bass (10Hz-25Hz) this is not audible as tones or notes but deep rumbles in movies are an example. When it is absent most people won’t miss it. That is once you heard what bass extension does it can add to the musical experience. For instance, with Piano music where pedals are used this lowest part can make the piano sound more real.
Lower bass (25Hz-50Hz) is the part of the bass where the deepest musical notes are. A small and gentle roll-off usually isn’t very audible. A substantial roll-off (-10dB) is quite audible.
Bass (50Hz-120Hz) is the part where most of the ‘body’ of bass instruments is. Sharp dips or peaks and emphasis or subdued parts here can color the bass, make it sound boomy, exaggerated, full, tight, dis-attached or muddy. The best sounding headphones/speakers have a flat response in the area. Some folks prefer substantially more bass than others. When traveling a bit more bass usually is welcome. High-bass (120Hz-250Hz) is where the harmonics of most bass sound-producing instruments are. A small peak there may make bass sound tighter. Too much (>5dB) can make bass sound muddy and boomy. A dip in this area can make bass instruments sound ‘wrong’ or ‘dis-attached’. This is where bass appears to be ‘apart’ from the music. Some people actually prefer a dip, certainly when the lower frequencies are elevated.

Bloat – Bloat is present usually in the mid bass. When frequencies below 400Hz are lifted opposite the mids and highs the bass can sound ‘bloated’ and overdone. When there is a dip around 150Hz this is the opposite of bloated and the bass sounds dis-attached.
Bloated bass often also causes ‘bloom‘ in male voices. In this case the male voice sounds unnaturally bassy/full and lacks clarity.
When only the part below 150Hz is boosted the bass doesn’t sound ‘bloated’.

Bright/Brightness – A small emphasis of upper mids. The frequency band between 1kHz and 7kHz. Brightness is a wider bandwidth form of Clarity + Detail, when exaggerated even more it becomes Shrill.

Clarity – A few dB emphasis between 1kHz and 3kHz can add some clarity for voices and instruments. The opposite (a dip) of clarity (seen a lot in headphones) could be described as Laid back, Sweet, lacking Attack. An exaggerated form is shrill, cold, hard.

Coarse
– is another word for Grainy or Gritty and describes uneven treble response with deep dips and peaks. Note that measurements made with measurement gear using a fake pinna can show substantial peaks and dips above 5kHz caused by the fake pinna but may not indicate roughness nor should one try to EQ this out.

Chocolaty – Describes a sweet and lush sound.

Cold – a general upward tilt in the frequency range between 300Hz and 3kHz. The opposite is warmth.

Congestion – Something sounds congested when it the sound is muffled and not very dynamic. It usually is a combination of emphasis in warmth and laid back sound / lacking in clarity.

Compressed – This can mean 2 things. There is compressed data and compressed music. Compressed data means that a file has been shrunk in size. Most people have heard of ZIP and/or RAR where one or more files are smaller in size so they can be sent as an attachment. This is lossless compression where the file can be reconstructed to its original size and then can be used. In Audio there are many lossless formats. The biggest difference with something like ZIP is that a ZIP file needs to be ‘unpacked’ before one can use the file (song or album) where audio files are de-compressed while the song is being played back. One can also compress files by leaving out data which can not be recovered later. The most well known lossy compression files are JPG (for pictures) and MP3 for music but there are many more formats. During the compression (encoding) one can usually select how much one throws away. More compression = more loss of fidelity.
When music is compressed the louder parts in a recording and lowered in volume and/or softer parts of a recording are amplified. Usually this is done in studios to get a more even sound. There is a fine line between this being done craft-fully (usually for each instrument its own compression) and it being overdone in dramatic ways. This sadly is very common for most popular recordings. Search for ‘loudness wars’.
When a headphone sounds compressed it usually is bit bloated sounding and lacks realism/clarity/dynamics.

Crisp – is another description of having clarity, an exaggerated form is shrill. The opposite is laid back.

Dark/Darkness
– Describes a gradual downward slope of frequencies above 3kHz often combined with an emphasis on bass/lower mids. An exaggerated form is Muffled. The opposite is Shrill

Decay – How a sound/note/resonance fades away over time. This is not always visible in the frequency response but could be visible in Cumulative Spectral Decay (Waterfall) plots. When there is some clarity and no mid bass emphasis most people describe the decay as fast.

Depth – How far away the instruments spacing is from back to front. In headphones this is not always perceived as such. Sometimes a gradual downward slope between 300Hz and 10kHz can also give a sense of depth imitating a greater distance from an actual music performance.

Detail – When something sounds detailed the frequency band between 1kHz and 3kHz is usually audibly flat or neutral and is more or less flat between 3kHz and 10kHz or has some mild emphasis (a few dB) or a peak in that part of the frequency range. An exaggerated form is Edgy, Sharpness, Sibilant.

Dry – Too little reverb or echo is used. Is also used to describe ‘flat’ and ‘boring’ studio recordings. Opposite of lively

Dynamic – When a headphone sounds dynamic it sounds ‘lively’ and instruments and voices ‘pop-out’ of clearly. It is the opposite of a relaxed, muffled or compressed sound. When a recording is truly dynamic there is a substantial difference between soft sounds and peaks.
You need to play the music loud to hear small details. Funnily enough when you can hear small details already at lower playback levels the sound is actually compressed yet many say, incorrectly, this is a dynamic sound.
The word dynamic is also used to describe a type of headphone driver (the most common type) where a magnet and voice-coil is used to create sound.
Then there is also dynamic range in an electrical sense. This describes how many difference in decibel there is between the signal and the noise and distortion products.
And finally Dynamic Range as in DR-rating. This describes how the difference between the average levels and peak levels in a recording.
Usually the recordings with DR ratings between 10 and 20 sound more realistic than recordings between 2 and 5.

Edgy or Etched – Between 3kHz and 7kHz, as a subset of brightness and Detailed, an exaggerated form of brightness/detail is Edgy, Etched, Sharpness, Sibilant. The opposite (a dip) can be described as lacking Finesse, dis-attached Treble.

Ethereal – Describes a slight treble elevated sound that feels ‘fragile’ and slightly unnatural but otherwise neutral and pleasant.

Finesse – This describes fine and delicate details heard in music. When one can hear small details clearly, realistic and well defined as in not ‘coarse’.
The opposite of finesse is grainy.

Forward – When voices and instruments pop-out. This usually is caused by a mild peak in the 1kHz to 2kHz range. A small peak is usually not very detrimental to the sound at all. The opposite of forward is ‘laid-back’.

Flat – When the frequency response does not deviate in the audible range something is considered flat.
When this word is used with headphones or speakers one usually finds that it doesn’t color the sound (too much). Strangely enough not everyone that describes a sound as flat it actually is flat. So one man’s ‘flat’ can be another ones bassy, boring, mid-rangy, or sharp sound.

Fun – This often describes a sound with elevated treble (>5kHz) and bass (<100Hz), also called ‘U shaped’ or ‘bathtub shaped’ sound.

Grainy – Also called ‘gritty’ and describes a sound that lacks finesse. The finer details are rendered a bit coarse. Often this is caused by lots of sharp peaks and deep dips in the treble area above 6kHz.

Harsh – This describes a sound similar as grainy but more concentrated in the midrange from 1kHz to 5kHz rather than in the treble range. Often distortion levels >1% in the midrange and or sharp peaks in that frequency range are the cause.

Highs – Also called treble, these are the upper frequencies above 5kHz.

Imaging – When a headphone or speaker images well it is very easy to pinpoint where instruments are and that image is stable and ‘sharp’. This requires a flat frequency response that is also matched between the two drivers, and detailed recordings. Slightly angled headphone drivers can have better ‘imaging’ as they make use of the ear-shape.

Laid back – describes a relaxed sound signature and is caused by an audible and rather wide dip around 2-4kHz. It is the opposite of forward and dynamic. Upper mids and lower treble is under-emphasized and is found to be pleasant for longer listening sessions when the dip is just slight (between 5 and 10dB).

Lush – is similar to Laid back. It describes a rich, warm-pillowy sound usually with slightly elevated lower frequencies and rather wide dip around 2-4kHz with a good treble quality that is a bit higher in level than when said to be laid back.

Microphonics – sensitivity to touch. It could be present in some electronic components but in the case of headphones it refers to mechanically ‘conducted’ sounds of the cable. When one touches the ear cups of a headphone one can hear this quite clearly. Depending on how a cable is coupled to the cup touching the cable does a similar thing but attenuated compared to touching the cups directly.
Cloth covered, thick and rigid cables usually are worse in this aspect then softer and thinner smooth surface cables. When microphonics are bad you can hear a cable rubbing against clothes when moving when music isn’t even playing that loud. Some are annoyed others simply don’t mind.

Mids/Midrange – Frequencies between roughly 250Hz and 4kHz. One can divide this in lower mids (250Hz – 500Hz) where the ‘body’ of voices and instruments is. The mids (500Hz – 1500Hz) and upper mids (1.5kHz to 4kHz). In the upper mids the ‘clarity’ of voices and instruments as well as ‘attack’ of musical instruments can be found.

Muddy – Describes the sound of elevated lower mids/upper bass where the bass is not clearly defined and ‘blends in’ with the rest of the music in an unnaturally elevated way.

Muffled – sound is when it would appear as though the sound is coming from a speaker with a wool blanket draped over it. Lacking in clarity and treble. Frequencies above 2kHz are subdued and or rolled-off.

Natural – When a headphone sounds natural all instruments and voices are reproduced in a realistic manner without coloration, a correct stereo-image and with a dynamic sound.

Neutral – and neutral are closely the same but neutral is more about the reproduction of sound not being colored. All frequencies are reproduced at the proper level.
There can be consensus about how a headphone should measure to be considered neutral.
However, there are many people stating a headphone or speaker sounds neutral to them but in reality is quite colored. The term neutral used in subjective reviews thus can be considered a meaningless term unless comparisons are made to known neutral headphones.

Openness – Has little to do with a headphone being open or closed. It usually refers to a detailed and neutral sounding headphone where instruments have a clear separation. Headphones with a good clarity are often described as being ‘open’ sounding.

Punch – powerful bass and drum hits. A small emphasis around 100-150Hz can relatively boost harmonics of bass drum/bass.

Rolled-off – Sound can be rolled-off in the lows and in the treble or both. Rolled-off bass is lacking in lower bass and can have slightly subdued bass as well. When the treble is rolled off frequencies above 10kHz usually are low in amplitude. When this happens usually the sound is not considered airy and lacks sparkle.

Sharpness – An emphasis between 2kHz and 6kHz can give instruments and voices the impression of being ‘highlighted’ and sharply detailed.

Shrill – An exaggerated form of sharpness usually with an emphasis between 4kHz and 10kHz and is unpleasant, shrieky.

Sibilant / sibilance – A sharp peak in the frequency band between 5kHz and 8kHz can emphasize the ‘s’ sounds in words. A high peak (>5dB) can sound piercing and sharp and is usually fatiguing and unpleasant during longer listening sessions. A lower peak between 3dB and 5dB can create an illusion of ‘detail’ in music and ‘sharply’ defined instruments. In the long run also fatiguing.

Signature – the overall tonal balance of a headphone. One could describe a signature in many ways as found in this article.

Soft – can be used to describe the loudness (amplitude as in how loud the sound is) or the ‘texture’ of the treble. For the latter it can describe the amplitude opposite the bass and mids or define treble quality. When treble is not splashy elevated, sibilant or coarse but ‘sweet’ and pleasant it is often described as soft. When the frequency response is quite ‘flat’ between 6kHz and 15kHz without sharp peaks and dips the treble quality usually is good and depending on the relative level can be said to be soft or sweet.

Soundstage – Describes in 3d terms (height, width and depth) where one perceives recorded instruments. For headphones it is very rare to hear instruments ‘projected’ clearly meters in front of you without special recordings or software. In the vast majority of cases sounds are between left and right ear only. For headphones instead of soundstage the word headstage is used.
This describes how well instruments are defined between left and right and how ‘sharp’ they can be pinpointed. One has to realize the stereo image is created in the studio during mixing/mastering process and is artificial in most cases. For headphones there is crossfeed which makes some recordings easier to listen to but this too is just a ‘trick’.

Sparkle – Usually caused by a slight emphasis in the (upper) treble and describes vibrant treble.

Spatial – describes how sounds can be heard all around you. Requires digital trickery to pull this of with headphones. Usually to get spatial sound multiple speakers are required placed around the listening position. Related terms: crossfeed and soundstage/headstage.

Sweet – Corresponds with ‘lush’. It describes a ‘soft’ sound signature usually with slightly elevated lows and soft (not grainy or splashy) highs.

Timbre – The tone of a note from an instrument. Timbre is determined by the ratio between the fundamental tone and its harmonics. Headphones with a ‘flat’ tonal response should have the proper timbre. When the tonal balance is not flat timbre can be affected and changed. This can sometime be for the better or worse and depends on the recording. Do note that in studios timbre of each individual instrument is often adjusted to fit in the recording. This can’t be undone.

Tonal Balance – describes how ‘flat’ a headphone is. When the bass is boosted the tonal balance is bassy, when treble is boosted the tonal balance is ‘bright’. When a headphone is described as tonally balanced no specific frequency bands are popping out or are subdued.
The real snag here is that some owners may feel a headphone is tonally balanced but in reality it may be bassy, bass-shy, warm, cold, midrangy or bright for instance. Tonally balanced = realistic sounding with no emphasis on anything.
Objectively tonal balance is difficult to prove headphone measurements can differ substantially between test-rigs.

Transparent – Similar to clarity it is a clean clear open and detailed quality.

Warm/warmth – a general downward tilt in the frequency range between 300Hz and 3kHz. The opposite is cold.
What about Hard sounding?
 
It was fascinating to read some of your predictions about how you think those loudspeakers sound just by looking at the measurements.

Maybe some of your predictions come close to how they sound, but it is also pretty obvious there is a lot of guesswork at work and I would put way more trust in your descriptions if you had actually experienced those loudspeakers first-hand and just told me what you heard in those listening sessions.
Well, your trust would be misplaced if their first-hand experience was uncontrolled.

At least to me, this confirms how important the subjective part of a review can be in supplementing the measurements,
Absolutely so… if the subjective review is drawn from controlled listening. But if not, then straight down the rabbit hole we go, with Matt waiting at the bottom for us.

and if any of you guys would take the time to describe in detail what you heard I'm sure it would be pretty straightforward information without any unnecessarily flowery choice of words. :)
I'm afraid it's not about flowery choices of words: it is about a fundamentally corrupted process leading to fundamentally corrupted findings. There's no way out of it. Well, there's no way out of it… without doing control listening. There's the obvious answer. But what reviewers are doing that?
 
It was fascinating to read some of your predictions about how you think those loudspeakers sound just by looking at the measurements.

Maybe some of your predictions come close to how they sound, but it is also pretty obvious there is a lot of guesswork at work and I would put way more trust in your descriptions if you had actually experienced those loudspeakers first-hand and just told me what you heard in those listening sessions. At least to me, this confirms how important the subjective part of a review can be in supplementing the measurements, and if any of you guys would take the time to describe in detail what you heard I'm sure it would be pretty straightforward information without any unnecessarily flowery choice of words. :)
I think I could tell enough that I would avoid these speakers. There are other faults that I would find more tolerable. Others may differ.

Beyond that, it's hard.
 
If you are interested in neutral/transparent then a quick glance at the measurements is enough to discount them, I heard them first in Munich some years ago now, the cabinet appeared to be making its own contribution to the reproduction
The manufacturer was demonstrating them Sean?
Keith
 
I made a list of 'translations' and explanations but may need some additions. When anyone knows some more words with descriptions please let me know so I can update the list below.
Have you checked out AES20 Annex C? (You can do an internet search and probably find a copy of it, but since it most likely violates copyright laws, I am not providing a link here.)
 
Or is there other ways of achieving an infinite baffle performance? And do you happen to know if the standard measurement criteria, especially in terms of off axis performance, applies just as much to an infinite baffle, or whether that brings in other considerations? Do they increase the challenges of getting good sound in an actual listening room or somehow ameliorate some of the challenges?
In-wall concept is basically IB, though typical commercial in-wall speakers use wall's internal volume or own flat enclosure. Concept doesn't not have much diffraction so soundstage is insensitive to listening distance. Directivity index is 3 dB at L.F. so slope of directivity index is usually shallow such as 0.76 dB/oct. i.e. 2.5 dB/dec. Difference between slopes of predicted in-room and sound power is very close to zero so sound balance stays similar in very wide area. Balance is very okay almost everywhere in semi-open area. Shallow slope of directivity requires different balancing to listening window compared to typical full space concept. On-axis/listening window should be lifted below mid-range to create almost the same balance (slope) in predicted in-room than typical full space concept. Traditions in recordings, and leaks and losses in wall and ceiling structures may require small compensation.
I have designed few affordable 2-way in-wall models: vented with own 8 l enclosure, 5.25" woofer, 1" tweeter and streaming amp. If I recall, the first buyer replaced 1238 with this concept, and there was quite clear consensus that 90 % off the price can produce better sound - especially for casual listening in wide area.
 
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Well, your trust would be misplaced if their first-hand experience was uncontrolled.


Absolutely so… if the subjective review is drawn from controlled listening. But if not, then straight down the rabbit hole we go, with Matt waiting at the bottom for us.


I'm afraid it's not about flowery choices of words: it is about a fundamentally corrupted process leading to fundamentally corrupted findings. There's no way out of it. Well, there's no way out of it… without doing control listening. There's the obvious answer. But what reviewers are doing that?

I think you missed my point.
The thing I said was that I would trust these guys' descriptions more of how that loudspeaker sounded if they had actually listened to it, instead of trying to describe how they thought it would sound by just analyzing the measurements.

So how do we control the accuracy of someone's description of how a loudspeaker sounds, based on looking at the measurements (but still knowing what speaker brand it is, the look, and the price)?
 
Unfortunately, we have the answer: "I'm too busy".

I am reminded of SIY's description of how to deal with this: "My first question is always a simple, "Evidence?" When invariably such is not forthcoming but there's a wall of handwaving text, my terse dismissal is, "OK, so no evidence.""

Let's be frank: if there were, as you requested, "larger datasets that show something different", are we to assume that Toole would be unaware of it? That would be a heck of an assumption. Or that he would be aware of it but ignore it in subsequent editions of his book? We are talking about a doyen of audio research. Let's be sensible.

I missed this one (don't see usually see your stuff unless quoted, of course, the feeling is mutual after all). But busy? Yeah, I'm not retired and ticking away the moments that make up a dull day. Count your blessings, eh?.

"Doyen" though? Nothing offhand about that flowery prose. Not as in "doyen talk to me like dat, bro"? That's just the subtext. What's the collective phrase in the unlikely event we are blessed with a multiplicity? I'm rather hoping it's "a luminescence of doyens".
 
This is the difficult part... translations may be needed in that case for people only familiar with 'flowery words and thus may be hard(er) to describe sounds in non-flowery language.

I made a list of 'translations' and explanations but may need some additions. When anyone knows some more words with descriptions please let me know so I can update the list below.

Airy – Describes the sense of space and openness of the music. Best heard in cymbals where the shimmer is realistic. This mostly has a relation with treble extension. It should be mentioned that not all well-extended headphones sound ‘airy’ and some not so well extended headphones can still sound sort of ‘airy’. The superlative (exaggerated) form of an ‘airy’ sound is ‘ethereal‘ where the sound feels very ‘fragile’ and overly ‘delicate’.

Analytical – A term used to describe a product that produces a high level of detail in reference to the music being played back. In technical terms, this means the tonal response is between ‘flat’ and slightly elevated above 3kHz.

Balance – This could mean balance between channels or sometimes people use the term to describe Tonal Balance.
Balance between channels means the stereo image is right in the middle. In some cases, balance can be correct for a certain part of the frequency range and not for higher or lower frequencies. This can be spotted in measurements. In sound, it can lead to a fuzzy position of a stereo image.
Also, one-sided seal loss with headphones can cause this when bass is less prominent in the leaky side. On measurements with a perfect seal this won’t be obvious.

Bassy – This is the lower end frequency of human hearing. Bass can be measured in quantity (heaviness) and quality. Other bass descriptors are muddy, punchy, rubbery, boomy, and fat.
The bass area is between 25Hz and 300Hz but harmonics can go as high as 5kHz. Peaks and dips in the frequency range between 20Hz and 500Hz can make the bass sound different from realistic. For descriptors and the frequency range, they fall into see the chart above.
The opposite of bassy is ‘Lean

Bass (Lows) – Can be divided into 4 ranges: sub-bass (10Hz-25Hz) this is not audible as tones or notes but deep rumbles in movies are an example. When it is absent most people won’t miss it. That is once you heard what bass extension does it can add to the musical experience. For instance, with Piano music where pedals are used this lowest part can make the piano sound more real.
Lower bass (25Hz-50Hz) is the part of the bass where the deepest musical notes are. A small and gentle roll-off usually isn’t very audible. A substantial roll-off (-10dB) is quite audible.
Bass (50Hz-120Hz) is the part where most of the ‘body’ of bass instruments is. Sharp dips or peaks and emphasis or subdued parts here can color the bass, make it sound boomy, exaggerated, full, tight, dis-attached or muddy. The best sounding headphones/speakers have a flat response in the area. Some folks prefer substantially more bass than others. When traveling a bit more bass usually is welcome. High-bass (120Hz-250Hz) is where the harmonics of most bass sound-producing instruments are. A small peak there may make bass sound tighter. Too much (>5dB) can make bass sound muddy and boomy. A dip in this area can make bass instruments sound ‘wrong’ or ‘dis-attached’. This is where bass appears to be ‘apart’ from the music. Some people actually prefer a dip, certainly when the lower frequencies are elevated.

Bloat – Bloat is present usually in the mid bass. When frequencies below 400Hz are lifted opposite the mids and highs the bass can sound ‘bloated’ and overdone. When there is a dip around 150Hz this is the opposite of bloated and the bass sounds dis-attached.
Bloated bass often also causes ‘bloom‘ in male voices. In this case the male voice sounds unnaturally bassy/full and lacks clarity.
When only the part below 150Hz is boosted the bass doesn’t sound ‘bloated’.

Bright/Brightness – A small emphasis of upper mids. The frequency band between 1kHz and 7kHz. Brightness is a wider bandwidth form of Clarity + Detail, when exaggerated even more it becomes Shrill.

Clarity – A few dB emphasis between 1kHz and 3kHz can add some clarity for voices and instruments. The opposite (a dip) of clarity (seen a lot in headphones) could be described as Laid back, Sweet, lacking Attack. An exaggerated form is shrill, cold, hard.

Coarse
– is another word for Grainy or Gritty and describes uneven treble response with deep dips and peaks. Note that measurements made with measurement gear using a fake pinna can show substantial peaks and dips above 5kHz caused by the fake pinna but may not indicate roughness nor should one try to EQ this out.

Chocolaty – Describes a sweet and lush sound.

Cold – a general upward tilt in the frequency range between 300Hz and 3kHz. The opposite is warmth.

Congestion – Something sounds congested when it the sound is muffled and not very dynamic. It usually is a combination of emphasis in warmth and laid back sound / lacking in clarity.

Compressed – This can mean 2 things. There is compressed data and compressed music. Compressed data means that a file has been shrunk in size. Most people have heard of ZIP and/or RAR where one or more files are smaller in size so they can be sent as an attachment. This is lossless compression where the file can be reconstructed to its original size and then can be used. In Audio there are many lossless formats. The biggest difference with something like ZIP is that a ZIP file needs to be ‘unpacked’ before one can use the file (song or album) where audio files are de-compressed while the song is being played back. One can also compress files by leaving out data which can not be recovered later. The most well known lossy compression files are JPG (for pictures) and MP3 for music but there are many more formats. During the compression (encoding) one can usually select how much one throws away. More compression = more loss of fidelity.
When music is compressed the louder parts in a recording and lowered in volume and/or softer parts of a recording are amplified. Usually this is done in studios to get a more even sound. There is a fine line between this being done craft-fully (usually for each instrument its own compression) and it being overdone in dramatic ways. This sadly is very common for most popular recordings. Search for ‘loudness wars’.
When a headphone sounds compressed it usually is bit bloated sounding and lacks realism/clarity/dynamics.

Crisp – is another description of having clarity, an exaggerated form is shrill. The opposite is laid back.

Dark/Darkness
– Describes a gradual downward slope of frequencies above 3kHz often combined with an emphasis on bass/lower mids. An exaggerated form is Muffled. The opposite is Shrill

Decay – How a sound/note/resonance fades away over time. This is not always visible in the frequency response but could be visible in Cumulative Spectral Decay (Waterfall) plots. When there is some clarity and no mid bass emphasis most people describe the decay as fast.

Depth – How far away the instruments spacing is from back to front. In headphones this is not always perceived as such. Sometimes a gradual downward slope between 300Hz and 10kHz can also give a sense of depth imitating a greater distance from an actual music performance.

Detail – When something sounds detailed the frequency band between 1kHz and 3kHz is usually audibly flat or neutral and is more or less flat between 3kHz and 10kHz or has some mild emphasis (a few dB) or a peak in that part of the frequency range. An exaggerated form is Edgy, Sharpness, Sibilant.

Dry – Too little reverb or echo is used. Is also used to describe ‘flat’ and ‘boring’ studio recordings. Opposite of lively

Dynamic – When a headphone sounds dynamic it sounds ‘lively’ and instruments and voices ‘pop-out’ of clearly. It is the opposite of a relaxed, muffled or compressed sound. When a recording is truly dynamic there is a substantial difference between soft sounds and peaks.
You need to play the music loud to hear small details. Funnily enough when you can hear small details already at lower playback levels the sound is actually compressed yet many say, incorrectly, this is a dynamic sound.
The word dynamic is also used to describe a type of headphone driver (the most common type) where a magnet and voice-coil is used to create sound.
Then there is also dynamic range in an electrical sense. This describes how many difference in decibel there is between the signal and the noise and distortion products.
And finally Dynamic Range as in DR-rating. This describes how the difference between the average levels and peak levels in a recording.
Usually the recordings with DR ratings between 10 and 20 sound more realistic than recordings between 2 and 5.

Edgy or Etched – Between 3kHz and 7kHz, as a subset of brightness and Detailed, an exaggerated form of brightness/detail is Edgy, Etched, Sharpness, Sibilant. The opposite (a dip) can be described as lacking Finesse, dis-attached Treble.

Ethereal – Describes a slight treble elevated sound that feels ‘fragile’ and slightly unnatural but otherwise neutral and pleasant.

Finesse – This describes fine and delicate details heard in music. When one can hear small details clearly, realistic and well defined as in not ‘coarse’.
The opposite of finesse is grainy.

Forward – When voices and instruments pop-out. This usually is caused by a mild peak in the 1kHz to 2kHz range. A small peak is usually not very detrimental to the sound at all. The opposite of forward is ‘laid-back’.

Flat – When the frequency response does not deviate in the audible range something is considered flat.
When this word is used with headphones or speakers one usually finds that it doesn’t color the sound (too much). Strangely enough not everyone that describes a sound as flat it actually is flat. So one man’s ‘flat’ can be another ones bassy, boring, mid-rangy, or sharp sound.

Fun – This often describes a sound with elevated treble (>5kHz) and bass (<100Hz), also called ‘U shaped’ or ‘bathtub shaped’ sound.

Grainy – Also called ‘gritty’ and describes a sound that lacks finesse. The finer details are rendered a bit coarse. Often this is caused by lots of sharp peaks and deep dips in the treble area above 6kHz.

Harsh – This describes a sound similar as grainy but more concentrated in the midrange from 1kHz to 5kHz rather than in the treble range. Often distortion levels >1% in the midrange and or sharp peaks in that frequency range are the cause.

Highs – Also called treble, these are the upper frequencies above 5kHz.

Imaging – When a headphone or speaker images well it is very easy to pinpoint where instruments are and that image is stable and ‘sharp’. This requires a flat frequency response that is also matched between the two drivers, and detailed recordings. Slightly angled headphone drivers can have better ‘imaging’ as they make use of the ear-shape.

Laid back – describes a relaxed sound signature and is caused by an audible and rather wide dip around 2-4kHz. It is the opposite of forward and dynamic. Upper mids and lower treble is under-emphasized and is found to be pleasant for longer listening sessions when the dip is just slight (between 5 and 10dB).

Lush – is similar to Laid back. It describes a rich, warm-pillowy sound usually with slightly elevated lower frequencies and rather wide dip around 2-4kHz with a good treble quality that is a bit higher in level than when said to be laid back.

Microphonics – sensitivity to touch. It could be present in some electronic components but in the case of headphones it refers to mechanically ‘conducted’ sounds of the cable. When one touches the ear cups of a headphone one can hear this quite clearly. Depending on how a cable is coupled to the cup touching the cable does a similar thing but attenuated compared to touching the cups directly.
Cloth covered, thick and rigid cables usually are worse in this aspect then softer and thinner smooth surface cables. When microphonics are bad you can hear a cable rubbing against clothes when moving when music isn’t even playing that loud. Some are annoyed others simply don’t mind.

Mids/Midrange – Frequencies between roughly 250Hz and 4kHz. One can divide this in lower mids (250Hz – 500Hz) where the ‘body’ of voices and instruments is. The mids (500Hz – 1500Hz) and upper mids (1.5kHz to 4kHz). In the upper mids the ‘clarity’ of voices and instruments as well as ‘attack’ of musical instruments can be found.

Muddy – Describes the sound of elevated lower mids/upper bass where the bass is not clearly defined and ‘blends in’ with the rest of the music in an unnaturally elevated way.

Muffled – sound is when it would appear as though the sound is coming from a speaker with a wool blanket draped over it. Lacking in clarity and treble. Frequencies above 2kHz are subdued and or rolled-off.

Natural – When a headphone sounds natural all instruments and voices are reproduced in a realistic manner without coloration, a correct stereo-image and with a dynamic sound.

Neutral – and neutral are closely the same but neutral is more about the reproduction of sound not being colored. All frequencies are reproduced at the proper level.
There can be consensus about how a headphone should measure to be considered neutral.
However, there are many people stating a headphone or speaker sounds neutral to them but in reality is quite colored. The term neutral used in subjective reviews thus can be considered a meaningless term unless comparisons are made to known neutral headphones.

Openness – Has little to do with a headphone being open or closed. It usually refers to a detailed and neutral sounding headphone where instruments have a clear separation. Headphones with a good clarity are often described as being ‘open’ sounding.

Punch – powerful bass and drum hits. A small emphasis around 100-150Hz can relatively boost harmonics of bass drum/bass.

Rolled-off – Sound can be rolled-off in the lows and in the treble or both. Rolled-off bass is lacking in lower bass and can have slightly subdued bass as well. When the treble is rolled off frequencies above 10kHz usually are low in amplitude. When this happens usually the sound is not considered airy and lacks sparkle.

Sharpness – An emphasis between 2kHz and 6kHz can give instruments and voices the impression of being ‘highlighted’ and sharply detailed.

Shrill – An exaggerated form of sharpness usually with an emphasis between 4kHz and 10kHz and is unpleasant, shrieky.

Sibilant / sibilance – A sharp peak in the frequency band between 5kHz and 8kHz can emphasize the ‘s’ sounds in words. A high peak (>5dB) can sound piercing and sharp and is usually fatiguing and unpleasant during longer listening sessions. A lower peak between 3dB and 5dB can create an illusion of ‘detail’ in music and ‘sharply’ defined instruments. In the long run also fatiguing.

Signature – the overall tonal balance of a headphone. One could describe a signature in many ways as found in this article.

Soft – can be used to describe the loudness (amplitude as in how loud the sound is) or the ‘texture’ of the treble. For the latter it can describe the amplitude opposite the bass and mids or define treble quality. When treble is not splashy elevated, sibilant or coarse but ‘sweet’ and pleasant it is often described as soft. When the frequency response is quite ‘flat’ between 6kHz and 15kHz without sharp peaks and dips the treble quality usually is good and depending on the relative level can be said to be soft or sweet.

Soundstage – Describes in 3d terms (height, width and depth) where one perceives recorded instruments. For headphones it is very rare to hear instruments ‘projected’ clearly meters in front of you without special recordings or software. In the vast majority of cases sounds are between left and right ear only. For headphones instead of soundstage the word headstage is used.
This describes how well instruments are defined between left and right and how ‘sharp’ they can be pinpointed. One has to realize the stereo image is created in the studio during mixing/mastering process and is artificial in most cases. For headphones there is crossfeed which makes some recordings easier to listen to but this too is just a ‘trick’.

Sparkle – Usually caused by a slight emphasis in the (upper) treble and describes vibrant treble.

Spatial – describes how sounds can be heard all around you. Requires digital trickery to pull this of with headphones. Usually to get spatial sound multiple speakers are required placed around the listening position. Related terms: crossfeed and soundstage/headstage.

Sweet – Corresponds with ‘lush’. It describes a ‘soft’ sound signature usually with slightly elevated lows and soft (not grainy or splashy) highs.

Timbre – The tone of a note from an instrument. Timbre is determined by the ratio between the fundamental tone and its harmonics. Headphones with a ‘flat’ tonal response should have the proper timbre. When the tonal balance is not flat timbre can be affected and changed. This can sometime be for the better or worse and depends on the recording. Do note that in studios timbre of each individual instrument is often adjusted to fit in the recording. This can’t be undone.

Tonal Balance – describes how ‘flat’ a headphone is. When the bass is boosted the tonal balance is bassy, when treble is boosted the tonal balance is ‘bright’. When a headphone is described as tonally balanced no specific frequency bands are popping out or are subdued.
The real snag here is that some owners may feel a headphone is tonally balanced but in reality it may be bassy, bass-shy, warm, cold, midrangy or bright for instance. Tonally balanced = realistic sounding with no emphasis on anything.
Objectively tonal balance is difficult to prove headphone measurements can differ substantially between test-rigs.

Transparent – Similar to clarity it is a clean clear open and detailed quality.

Warm/warmth – a general downward tilt in the frequency range between 300Hz and 3kHz. The opposite is cold.

Great elaboration. It won't suit people offended by mere use of language but that's no matter.

I imagine you did much of this with headphone listening in mind? The commentary on soundstage is interesting. Listening to a lot of spatial audio recently, where the "headstage" is more out front than between the ears, and especially on eg Apple Vision Pro where soundtrack binaural mixes are rendered in very effective surround, I think that "special recordings or software" should be entirely normal.
 
Thanks for your reply.

As a reminder, my aim is not to convince you or anyone here to accept my listening impressions. I am running a little experiment to see what some hair would predict for measurements versus the sound I seem to experience when auditioning these speakers numerous times and comparing them to many other speakers.

I’ve found that my own listening impressions tend to correlate generally well when I see the measurements. However, the O/96 seems a particularly interesting case, given the variety of oddities in the measurements, in terms of predicting exactly what they will sound like in every way. Something like “ rolled off in the highs and midrange rich” or whatever we’re not capture everything I heard.

Those in-room measurements certainly track pretty well with what I'd expect to see based on the anechoic measurements, but they do not track very well with your experience. We don't know how the in-room response was in the rooms where you listened to them of course. But it is likely they were not very bass heavy there either.

I was trying to describe that they were not bloated in the bass per se, which to me often is accompanied by a sluggish quality. But rather distinguished from the laser focussed bass quality of something like a Magico, in having a certain round, bloomy warmth that seem to flow out effortlessly.
Those who have spent good time with the loudspeakers tend to understand. This is a quality of this mentioned over and over by other reviewers, and owners.

John Atkinson of Stereophile when making his measurements and listening at his own place seemed to getting a significant amount of bass in his own room, and his impressions seem to track mine:

“But with well-recorded rock and classical vocal recordings, the measured problems seemed to step into the background, letting me appreciate the O/96's full-range, evenly balanced sound and superb clarity. ”
Some of what you are describing can be attributed to the extra energy in the midrange, but that you generally found the sound to be rich and full bodied is somewhat strange. We could theorize that the resonances (adding energy over time, which we do see in some of the measurements) to some extent compensate for the lack of direct energy. Also the relatively wide baffle will give you more directed energy towards you in the midbass.

If perceiving a quality of richness and density and scale seems “ strange” from the Stereophile measurements, for me that would indicate how difficult it can be to extrapolate from certain speaker measurements.

As I say the richness and scale of the sound were for me, premiere characteristics that stuck out, and these characteristics have been noted with regularity by subjective reviewers (see some of the comments I posted) as well as owners.

People can make of that stuff what they want, of course. I find that, at some point, the dismissal of many listening impressions citing similar characteristics gets a little
hand wavy. For instance, why would we all happen to be imagining many of the same qualities? What would possibly count for that? Or is it quite plausible the speakers actually produce those characteristics?
 
That peak in the mids in both rooms pretty much guarantees that the owner will often complain about 'recording quality.'

They never blame the speaker which is why it's possible to claim that so many owners are 'satisfied' with them.

I’m not sure about that. From my experience with audiophiles, especially the type more likely to buy these speakers, they care about how much they enjoy their music through their speakers. Most of course have owned many different loud speakers, and often the speakers are chosen through a process of auditioning, a selection of loudspeakers.

If they were finding that more of recordings were sounding crappy on the O/96 then I think they would be less happy with them and less likely to have purchased them.

I myself played a huge selection of my own favourite music over many days and with a few exceptions, found them engaging on all of it.

It’s absolutely the case, I think, that someone else here could’ve been listening right beside me to everything and focussing on what they found to be the speaker’s colorations as a distraction, while I was appreciating how the speaker brought certain attributes to the sound that I really value. Hence the usefulness of listening for yourself.
 
From those measurements, that's a surprise. It might do the "hyperrealistic" thing with solo guitar where it's "in the room", sounds like a really nice classical guitar, but the details in the playing are missing, but I doubt you'd fall for that as others do, even if you do look for that realism thing overall.

I appreciate the vote of confidence :)

Like I said earlier, I’m not seeking to convince anyone here to take my impressions as anything more than what they think they are worth. I’m just comparing what people are saying here to my impressions, and the many others that I am aware of regarding these loudspeakers.

I didn’t find the reproduction of solo classical guitar to be hyper realistic, but rather naturally realistic. Not hyped. With the vividness and clarity necessary to make it feel like a performer is in front of me, but with a relaxed sense of detail that seemed natural, and the type of resonating strings and guitar body that I recognize from having often listened to the real thing. It could’ve been a set of pleasing colorations of course but it did the trick.

That said, I seem to recall that a Track or two of a guitar quartet playing energetically, where the sound seemed become a little bit more confused or congested than what I was used to on my Thiels (same thing happened on the same tracks when I owned harbour speakers comparing them to the Thiels). But overall, my reckoning was of not being bothered by that sense of congestion very often. I played a number orchestral pieces that sounded spectacular.

As far as detail in general, I was actually taken aback by how much effortless detail I could hear on these loudspeakers. Sometimes it blew my mind, even having recently listened to the same tracks on a range of highend loudspeakers (including Vivid Audio, Magico, Revel, Kii Audio, Focal, Paradigm, tons of others and regularly on my Thiel flagship 3.7 speakers at home).

It’s my view that once you get to a certain point in loudspeaker performance, you don’t hear “ more detail” so much as the same general details are presented differently on different sounding speakers. Which can give the impression of “ hearing certain things for the first time” or emphasizing details in a way you hadn’t heard before.

There’s a track I play on every system by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet:

African Suite - Djembe - York - Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

Give it a listen if you can find it.

There is some low end to the drum/percussion that can sound quite muddy and indistinct on plenty of systems, and so can the general interplay between the guitars and the percussion. The Devore speakers sounded “ great” in terms of the realism of the guitars, but only “ good/OK” in terms of untangling all the instruments really cleanly.
But there is a delicately played chime at one point that I always listen for on any system to see how it digs out that chime. It’s easier to hear and more distinctly rendered on some speakers than others. On the Devores that little chime was beautiful, easily sculpted out from the rest of the mix, floating in its own space, with a very realistic sense of tonality.

Similarly, Herbie Hancock playing lullaby from the album Gershwin’s world also blew me away. The sense of clarity was amazing, the strings so rich, clear big sounding and life like, and the piano was rendered as a big resonating piano with the most delicate level of detail in terms of the keys being struck. I’ve never been more impressed by that track on any other system.

And yet I have also heard occasionally that some people feel the Devore speakers are not “ ultra detailed” or not detailed enough for them and if you want that, you should go looking for other speakers. So I can see it both ways. I guess it depends on how one is listening for detail and what type of detail.
 
It was fascinating to read some of your predictions about how you think those loudspeakers sound just by looking at the measurements.

Maybe some of your predictions come close to how they sound, but it is also pretty obvious there is a lot of guesswork at work and I would put way more trust in your descriptions if you had actually experienced those loudspeakers first-hand and just told me what you heard in those listening sessions. At least to me, this confirms how important the subjective part of a review can be in supplementing the measurements, and if any of you guys would take the time to describe in detail what you heard I'm sure it would be pretty straightforward information without any unnecessarily flowery choice of words. :)

I’m glad you found this little exercise fun or interesting.

As you know, my own view is that Scientific controls are necessary if you want to make sure you are evaluating only the sound and not other sets of biases.

But it’s also my view that it’s sensible to be pragmatic as well, and within a pragmatic framework, informal listening sessions and descriptions can be useful, and acceptable.

For instance, Blumlein 88 had just described some of his own experience with the problematic sound of some Magnepan loudspeakers HERE

No, someone could wave off any and all such discussions as “ hopelessly corrupted” and useless in terms of accepting the claims.
But I think it’s perfectly reasonable to accept, informally and pragmatically, someone’s experience like that and so far as they seem perfectly plausible (e.g. plausible from what we know from speaker measurements, other peoples experience, etc.). So I’m not demanding that he first present results of his blind testing before I accept his description (within the context of not having ruled out bias effect).

Likewise, I’m good with accepting the informal listening impressions from other audiophiles, with all the same caveats, so long as I find some credibility to what they are saying. Credibility in terms of not making implausible claims (which rule out all the golden woo woo) and credibility in terms of whether they’re listening impressions tend to match my own, or seem to triangulate well with a range of other listeners impressions.

I’ve found some loudspeakers sound exactly as described by other people.

As well, I’ve mentioned before that on other forums (Audiogon, etc.) I have provided a wide range of descriptions of loudspeakers I have owned or auditioned. And that’s there for other people to encounter, and if they find that I have described speakers accurately they are familiar with or that they have owned, then for them it raises the credibility, and they might ask me for specific speaker comparisons. This (along with other peoples descriptions) has led to a number of folks trying out loudspeakers and being very happy that they sounded “ just as described.”

In fact, recently, somebody was asking about a range of speakers including Magico, and people were suggesting he also consider Joseph audio speakers as well, so I chimed in with a comparison of the Magico speakers I’ve heard versus the Joseph audio speakers: what type of characteristics he would get from each. Somebody just sent me a private message saying that he read the description, that he owned two systems, one with Joseph audio speakers and the other being Magico, and that he found my description of their different sonic characteristics to be bang on in terms of how each speaker sounds to him.

I think somebody can certainly not bother with such intersubjective agreement about the sound of loudspeakers, and seek more reliable information in measurements and blind test scores . On the other hand, it strikes me a little hand wavy to always outright dismiss any such subjective agreement as imagination, especially if they cannot point to the inherent implausibility of the impressions.
A hyper-scepticism starts to produce some of the problems I have already outlined in the thread.

I can’t say I have a track record of accurately describing what other audiophiles hear under blinded conditions. But I seem to have described what many of them perceive under sighted conditions (and likewise, I find the same from some reviewers for my own impressions). And that to me remains interesting, especially as those are the conditions in which we actually use the loudspeakers.
 
Absolutely so… if the subjective review is drawn from controlled listening. But if not, then straight down the rabbit hole we go, with Matt waiting at the bottom for us.

The facts are that I reliably endorse and defend the ethos of this forum on here and other sites, have engaged in years of trying to convince other audiophiles of the relevance of blind testing and measurements (to the point I can be branded as a dogmatic objectivist), have regularly expressed that measurements and scientific controls are the best method for reliably understanding audio gear, have described numerous of my own blind testing, and have refrained from endorsing any anti-scientific audiophile tweaks and woo woo, while always couching my own impressions with the caveats associated with sighted listening….

None of that would place me in any honest description of being at the bottom of a subjectivist rabbit hole.

What I think we have here is The Narcissism Of Small Differences run wild.

I'm afraid it's not about flowery choices of words: it is about a fundamentally corrupted process leading to fundamentally corrupted findings.

Could you remind us why it is you bother to choose well-measuring and accurate audio equipment, to be used in conditions that
“ fundamentally corrupt” your perception of the actual sound?

As I’ve pointed out to you: Responses like
“ look at good measurements to narrow down your choice of loudspeakers and then if you want choose between the finalists under sighted conditions” don’t actually make sense of this, if the narrowing down via measurements weren’t relevant to the sound you will apprehend in sighted listening at home in the first place.

Sincerely,
- A “General Menace” :)
 
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