Glossary of Audio Terms

[Johnny Vinyl]

This glossary of audio terms is compiled by Stereophile Magazine. For additional links to audio and video glossaries, go to Post #30.

Glossary of Audio Terms

Accuracy: The degree to which the output signal from a componant or system is perceived as replicating the sonic qualities of its input system.
Aggressive: Reproduced sound that is excessively forward and bright.
Airy: Pertaining to treble which sounds light, delicate, open and seemingly unrestricted in upper extension.
Aliveness: A quality of sound which gives an impression that the performers are present, in person, in the listening room.
Analytical: Very detailed, almost to the point of excess.
Attack: The buildup of sound when an instrument is bowed, blown, struck or plucked. Poor attack makes a system sound slow.


Body: A quality of roundness and robustness in reproduced sound.
Boomy: Characterized by pronounced exaggeration of the midbass and, often, dominance of a narrow range of bass frequencies.
Bright, brilliant: The degree to which reproduced sound has a hard, crisp edge to it.

Chesty: A pronounced thickness or heaviness from reproduced male voice, due to excessive energy in the upper bass or lower midrange.
Clean: Free from audible distortion.
Clinical: Sound that is pristinely clean but wholly uninvolving.
Coherent: Pertaining to the soundstage: Phantom imaging that reproduces within the stereo stage the original lateral positions of the performers.
Cold: Same as cool, only more so. Having somewhat excessive upper-range output and weak lower-range output.
Coloration: An audible "signature" with which a reproducing system imbues all signals passing through it.
Crisp: In reproduced sound: sharply focused and detailed, sometimes excessively so because of a peak in the mid-treble region.

Definition: That quality of sound reproduction which enables the listener to distinguish between individual voices or instruments comprising a large performing group.
Delicacy: The reproduction of very subtle, very faint details of musical sound, such as the fingertip-friction produced when a guitar or harp is played.
Detail: The sublest, most delicate parts of the original sound, which are usually the first things lost by imperfect componants
Dynamic: Giving an impression of wide dynamic range: punchy. This is related to system speed as well as to volume contrast.

Effortless: Unstrained; showing no sign of audible stress during loud passages.
Extension: The usable limits of a componant's frequency range.

Fast: Giving an impression of extremely rapid reaction time, which allows a reproducing system to "keep up with" the signal fed to it.
Flat: Deficient in or lacking in soundstage depth, resulting in the impression that all reproduced sound sources are the same distance from the listener.
Focus: The quality of being clearly defined. It has also been described as the enhanced ability to hear brief moments of silence between the musical impulses in reproduced sound.
Forward: A quality of reproduction which seems to place sound sources closer than they were recorded.

Glare: An unpleasant quality of harshness or brightness, due to excessive low- or mid-treble energy.
Glassy: Very bright.
Golden: A euphonic coloration characterized by roundness, richness, sweetness and liquidity.

Hard: Tending toward steeliness, but not quite shrill.
Harsh: Gratingly unpleasant to the ear.
Height: The usually inadvertent production of vertical directional clues, which make some instruments sound as if they are above or below the other performers.

Imaging: The measure of a system's ability to float stable and specific phantom images, reproducing the original sizes and locations of the instruments across the soundstage.
Impact: A quality of concussive force, as from a deep, strong bass attack, which produces a brief sensation of visceral pleasure.
Inner detail: The sonic subleties within a complex program signal, reproducible only by a system having high resolution.
Involvement: The degree to which a reproduction draws the listener in to the musical performance and evokes an emotional response to it.

Laid-back: Recessed, distant-sounding, having exaggerated depth.
Lean: Very slighly bass-shy.
Lifeless: Sound that is dull, unfocused, unconvincing and uninvolving.
Listening fatigue: A psychoacoustic phenomenon from prolonged listening to sound whose distortion coherent is too low to be audible as such, but is high enough to be perceived subliminally. The physical and psychological discomfort can induce headaches and nervous tension.
Low-level detail: The subtlest elements of musical sound, which include the delicate details of instrumental sounds and the final tail of reverberation decay.

Muddy: Ill-defined, congested.
Musical, musicality: A personal judgement as to the degree to which reproduced sound resembles live music.
Muted: Dark, lifeless, closed-in.
Neutral: Free from coloration.
Opaque: Lacking detail and transparency.
Open: Exhibiting qualities of delicacy, air, and fine detail.

Pace: The apparent tempo of a musical performance, which can be different from its actual beats-per-minute tempo. Pace is affected by phrasing in performance and speed in reproduction.
Phantom image: The re-creation by a stereo system of an apparent sound source at a location other than that of either loudspeaker.
Polite: Laid-back.
Presence: A quality of realism and aliveness.
Pristene: Very clean-sounding, very transparent.

Realism: A subjective assessment of the degree to which the sound from an audio system approaches that of live music. This has meaning only when the recording purports to reproduce an acoustical event taking place in a real acoustical space.
Reticent: Moderately laid-back.
Revealing: Outstandingly detailed and focused. Analytical.

Seamless: Having no perceptible discontinuities throughout the audio range.
Sibilence: A coloration that resembles or exaggerates the vocal s-sound.
Silky: Pertains to treble performance that is velvety-smooth, delicate and open.
Slow: Sound reproduction which gives the impression that the system is lagging behind the electrical signals being fed to it.
Smearing: Severe lack of detail and focus.
Smooth: Sound reproduction having no irritating qualities; free from HF peaks, easy and relaxing to listen to.
Soundstaging, soundstage presentation: The accuracy with which a reproducing system conveys audible information about the size, shape, and acoustical characteristics of the original recording space and the placement of the performers within it.
Spacious: Presenting a broad panorama of ambience, which may be wider that the distance between the louspeakers.
Speed: The apparent rapidity with which a reproducing system responds to steep wavefronts and overall musical pace.
Stentorian: A quality of great power and authority from a louspeaker.
Stereo stage: The area between and behind the louspeakers, from which most phantom images are heard.
Sterile: Pristinely clean, but uninvolving.
Strained: Showing signs of audible stress during loud passages, as though the system is verging on overload.
Sweet: Having a smooth, softly delicate high end.

Taut: In bass reproduction, under tight control of the electrical signal; detailed and free from "hangover".
Thin: Very deficient in bass.
Timbre: The recognizable characteristic sound "signature" of a muscial instrument, by which it is possible to tell an oboe, for example, from a flute when both are sounding the same note.
Timing: The apparent instrumental ensemble (synchronism) of a performance, which is affected by system speed.
Transparency, transparent: A quality of sound reproduction that gives the impression of listening through the system to the original sound, rather than to a pair of loudspeakers.

Uncolored: Free from audible colorations.
Uninvolving: Ho-hum sound. Reproduction which evokes boredom and indifference.
Veiled, veiling: Pertaining to a deficiency of detail and focus, due to moderate amounts of distortion, treble-range restriction, or attack rounding.

Weight: The feeling of solidity and foundation contributed to music by extended, natural bass reproduction.
Width: The apparent lateral spread of a stereo image. If appropriately miked when recorded, a reproduced instrument should sound no wider or narrower that it would have sounded originally.

Zippy: A slightly top-octave emphasis.

Additional Audio Terms

Attack Transient: The initial energy pulse of a percussive sound, such as from a piano string, triangle or drum head.

John