I’ve just moved house and now have space for a dedicated listening room (30 Sqm). Currently I have a Sony STR-DB900 S- Master Digital Amplifier (QS receiver with onboard DAC and digital amplification delivering 120w per channel) powering a KEF 2005 sub sat arrangement which is now only used for stereo listening.

Prior to this I had a Marantz KI6000 amp and B&W CDM2 SE’s which sounded great.

Originally I tried replacing the sats with B&W CM1’s and keeping the sub but the pairing didn’t work. The CM1’s were clearly too small for the room. So now I’m considering some floor standers around £500 -£600 mark. I primarily listen to electronic / chill out and piano music from either Spotify or via AirPlay. I am also prepared to consider a new amp although I’ve many seem to have have streaming features unless going for an AV receiver.

Unfortunately the town I stay near has only one hifi shop with a limited selection so auditioning isn’t very easy 🙁

Have shortlisted q acoustic 3050, focal 716, Dali Zensor 5 but can’t audition any of these without going on a 300 mile round trip!

Sorry, and I really hate to be that guy on the first reply, but you spend all that money to listen to music at 320kbps rather than 1411kbps uncompressed?

If you have such an ear for it, I’d recommend upgrading your media rather than hardware.

Please don’t hit me, I’m not deliberately being an arse, it’s just like buying a formula one car and trying to get better results from using forecourt fuel. Even the premium stuff won’t be enough to get the best form the system.

Note – I’m not a buff nor would I claim to be. I’m just looking from a technical standpoint rather than subjective.

I agree with your comments squirrellking; over time I am building up a lossless collection on my NAS. My days of CD / Vinyl have sadly passed over the past 10 years when I’ve not really had good enough system to get the benefit!

Sorry, and I really hate to be that guy on the first reply, but you spend all that money to listen to music at 320kbps rather than 1411kbps uncompressed?

This…

Doesn’t matter how good your speakers are, it’s like putting 18″ rims on a 1.2 Corsa. Basically, all you’re doing is polishing a turd!

Any £100 bookshelf speakers will be more than good enough to be able to tell the difference between even the best MP3 and WAV recordings. Until you listen to a high enough quality source, new speakers would purely be a vanity purchase as they wont make an appreciable difference.

Hmmm. Tricky.

Q’s are very good, as a rule.

You could split the budget between speakers and more, quality, media?

That said… new kit would make any subsequent purchases sound better, so why not???

I am in a similar position, or hope to be at some stage. I haven’t bought hard copies of anything for ages having not had the time, space or possibility to listen anywhere than in the car where an iPod is good enough! I do have some KEF Q5s which I will use and build a system around them so will be coming at it from a different angle – but if anyone told me not to bother until I invested in loads of new recordings I would probably just slap them 😉

As to your question – Q Acoustics look good, or that old standby Monitor Audio Bronzes spring to mind.

you could go for some second hand meridian dsp – squeezebox touch with a nas?

For a dedicated room I’d budget £250ish for some acoustic treatment, few bass traps in the corners, couple of wall panels and acoustic traps behind the speakers.

Easy way to clean up/tighten the sound.

I’m baffled as to why folk spend thousands on equipment yet refuse to spend money on a cheap upgrade which will aurally be an improvement.

Recently picked up a pair of Tannoy Dc6t floorstanders at Richer Sounds.
Originally £800, they were selling them off for £250.

I’m very impressed.
They seem to do everything well – nice flat response, go very deep without booming and image well.
Tonally they are spot on – a piano actually sounds like a piano.

I auditioned the Dali Zensor 3 (irritating ‘cuppyness’ to voices, bit boom & tizz) and the Q acoustics
floorstanders, which I liked, but found them a bit ordinary next to the Tannoys.

Hope this helps.
If you’re anywhere near Burnley, you’re welcome to have a listen.

The Tannoys seem to really suit Marantz amps btw.
I believe Marantz use Tannoy speakers as part of the development process for their amps, so not too surprising.

At £250, I can’t recommend them highly enough.
They are better than anything else I’ve heard under a grand.

Very much personal taste though – they’ve replaced a set of Monitor Audios that I hated with a passion.

There’s some sh1t being talked on here…

Somafunk has the best suggestion.

The BBC did a DBT ages ago, once you got to 256Kb MP3s people were unable to differentiate from CD…

320 is a fair bit above that.

People have run high-end demos at hifi shows using ipods…

Very difficult to recommend speakers blindly like this – how they perform will depend massively on your room and to a lesser degree on your amp.

I think bookshelf speakers tend to vary in their perceived performance per amplifier more as they are only handling part of the signal, so highlight differences in the output of your amp.

Full range speakers are safer, but then you have more room matching issues with the bass output.

I once tried some PMC FB1s and was very impressed with how controlled they were in the bass. A bit lacking in midrange quality for me, but a different amp might have been better.

If buying new I would want a cooling off period or home trial – shop demos mean nothing.

Alternatively buy from ebay and then sell again if no good (make sure there are shipping boxes…)

There are some FB1s on ebay now :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PMC-FB1-Speakers-/231623332683?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item35edd3934b

and a newer version :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PMC-FB1i-Main-Stereo-Speakers-/252028361281?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3aae0f9a41

you might get lucky with the price.

Also noticed these Spendor A5s :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Spendor-A5-Loudspeakers-Pair-Light-Oak-/331607037871?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4d3551d7af

Not really sure how this is shit advice?

I know for a fact I can hear 256kb mp3 compression, in a couple of seconds. I know this because all the CDs I ripped when I got my first iPod are 256kb/s.

Sure somafunk’s advice is good, but, most people don’t consider that because they don’t have dedicated rooms. In this case OP is lucky he does, so should consider it.

The actual speakers being mentioned are all very good, so what’s the problem?

OP, it might also help if you described what sort of sound you’re after? I, for example, have problems in my current room with treble exciting the parallel walls, so I would look for speakers voiced a bit more laid-back.

Any preferences?

(And yes, room treatment is a good idea, except my contract forbids hanging anything on the walls)

If it helps the OP I have some Dali Xensor 5s fed by a Marantz all-in-one and they sound fantastic, listening to CDs or Spotify. I didn’t compare them to anything else as HiFi shops here are overpriced nightmares..

I have a lovely pair of Regan RS 5’s for sale. The most musical speakers I have ever heard but unfortunately my whole hi fi has to go due to domestic incompatibility.

They’re just shy of £1k new. I’d be looking for £350 + postage. Email in profile if interested …

They really are just lovely.

my current room with treble exciting the parallel walls, so I would look for speakers voiced a bit more laid-back.

(And yes, room treatment is a good idea, except my contract forbids hanging anything on the walls)

try toeing in the speakers – reflections from the sidewalls will be less of an issue.

If it is bad you could try some decorative panels.

I had excellent results when I put the arm chairs from the 3-piece suite with side of the speakers so the back cushions caught the first reflections.

I bet you would be hard pushed to BDT those changes from the ripping rate – but even if you can the magnitude of the changes are much smaller than the differences a room and the furnishings can make.

Emphasising the bitrate as a priority is the poor advice.

One option is something like a Behringer DEQ2496 to mod the sound – then just buy flat sounding speakers – although there is more to a speaker than just response…

Those Sweeney speakers might be good :

are they similair to the Rega RS5s ?

Went bankrupt twice, John Thaw.
Always had a rep as a big Spendor.

Sorry.

The BBC did a DBT ages ago, once you got to 256Kb MP3s people were unable to differentiate from CD…

320 is a fair bit above that.

The difference between even the best 320kbps MP3 and a WAV is quite a bit more noticable than the difference between 26″ wheels and 650b… Yet the entire MTB world is dropping their 26″ bikes in droves!

I’ve done studies and tests into this, even with modest kit in far from perfect auditioning rooms, I could tell the difference quite easily.

People have run high-end demos at hifi shows using ipods…

An iPod is just a storage device. You can store WAV’s on it too!

Emphasising the bitrate as a priority is the poor advice.

That’s like saying you’ll go much faster if you spend £3k on that brand new bike, rather than losing the 10kg of excess timber you’re carrying cos you like the pies and ale a bit too much! Spend the money if you want to, and it makes you feel better about the whole situation, but don’t be under any illusion that it will make as much difference as sorting out the source… Put sh!t in, get sh!t out!

Somafunk’s points are spot on if you have a dedicated auditioning room. Spending some money in that way will really improve the sound on any speakets, in the same way that improving the source audio quality will.

Very much personal taste though – they’ve replaced a set of Monitor Audios that I hated with a passion.

This is a good point too… All Hi-Fi is personal taste. One set of speakers will flatter a certain type of music more than another, which will suit one person’s tastes over the next. There is no real right or wrong, it’s very subjective. I got pretty bored of Hi-Fi years ago to be fair, having realised that they were several leagues above the MTB world in terms of marketing guff, and smoke and mirrors sales spiel. Find a pair of speakers you like, play some good source audio through your system, and enjoy… That’s worth a few quid in anyone’s book, and you don’t need anyone else to judge you on your purchases. Personally, since I got into Music Production and realised that good music sounds good on ay speakers, and sh!t music sounds sh!t on any speakers, I’m less bothered these days by having a quality Hi-Fi setup.

Dali Zensors are very nice and clean sounding. Monitor Audio BX6 are also pretty awesome at the price point.

Phone up your local Richer Sounds and get them to set up a demo for you, you can probably even take your own amp in.

Phone up your local Richer Sounds and get them to set up a demo for you, you can probably even take your own amp in.

and room – demos mean very little in a different room.

And do Richer Sounds have a dedicated room – a demo on the shop floor is even less meaningful – you will often be running the loudness much higher than you would at home with the consequence of the system sounding different -> equal loudness curve, etc.

There’s loads of things you can do to effectively tweak your room without needing a dedicated listening room – rugs, curtains, platforms under your speakers, furniture placement.

Funny how Radio 6 can sound pretty decent when their bitrate is so low, and is MP2 as well so that is even worse. Maybe it is something to do with me having decent speakers and competent amps.

TurnerGuy – Member

‘demos mean very little in a different room’.

I’ve been very lucky – not chopped and changed much over the years.

But. I loved the Monitor Audios in the shop.
Listened to them several times, over a long period and couldn’t fault them.

Got them home and hated them.
New room, so persevered, shifted all over the place, even rearranging the whole room.
Nowt.

Before going back for a trade in I tried them downstairs on the Denon in the main room and they sound fine.
😐

Married to Sheila Hancock, John Thaw.
Big family.
They had Quads.

I think radio 6 sounds terrible! Shows you how much ‘high end’ hifi changes and flatters audio if it can make that terrible input sound good, unless it is just the placebo of the cost of the kit overriding what is actually being heard, which I imagine is usually the case with high end hifi.

I have some Q Acoustics (although a mate who works for them so I paid waaay less than list) and a Yamaha R-N500 amplifier. They look great and sounds excellent. Just probably will shake my home office down!

All this hifi stuff is just juju isn’t it? It’s expensive so it must be good.

Imagine if TX Max started flogging high-end stuff for a few quid, the hifi dealers would go round and burn them down.

I think radio 6 sounds terrible! Shows you how much ‘high end’ hifi changes and flatters audio if it can make that terrible input sound good

But I also listen to the Giles Peterson show from radio 6 on my Cowon media player with Shure SE535 headphones during the week, and that sounds pretty good as well, enough to make me go out and buy music.

My amps are pretty transparent as well – Quad 909 monos and a passive Music First TVC preamp – the transformers ‘might’ smooth stuff out I suppose but it seems pretty transparent to me, and a lot less processed than most amps I have heard. I once rejected a big Bryston power amp I tried as it sounded very processed, and I had just had it serviced at PMC.

And my speaker system is pretty excellent as well 🙂 Stirling V2s on AB-2 bass units – designed by the guy who used to run Spendor…

I think my kit gives the DAB its best chance at sounding reasonable, more mediocre kit just compounds the errors.

All this hifi stuff is just juju isn’t it? It’s expensive so it must be good.

It can be but not always.

I have had the same type of speaker, albeit with some improvements like x-over, and pretty much the same amp (got a more powerful version now of an amp with the same topology – Quad 306 to Quad 909 monos now) since I left Uni – so nearly 30 years. Source has changed a couple of times as well.

I doubt it will change again.

Depends whether you like listening to music, or having shiny things you can change often as a hobby.

Imagine if TX Max started flogging high-end stuff for a few quid, the hifi dealers would go round and burn them down.

Richer Sounds tried selling higher end gear but that went nowhere and they had to shut that shop. Was on London bridge, next to their old shop – sold Pink triangles, etc.

If anyone in hifi is bad it is the What HiFi reading loons that frequent Richer Sounds thinking that they are getting good value for their money…

Oi!
I’ve never read What HiFi? in my life.
I’ve bought two hugely discounted bits of kit from them now, they’ve been fine.
🙂

They’re good if you know what you want.
Just treat them as any other Hi-Fi shop – car salesmen with better coffee.

They do have a returns policy btw – 15% ‘restocking fee’.
😐

They do have a returns policy btw.

I have bought some stuff there – including an Uzi sub-machine water pistol that shoots 60 shots a minute up to 30 feet and was the ‘Managers Choice’ in the London Bridge branch many years ago. Couldn’t take it out though as it looks too real…

But a lot of people thrash through hifi kit buying the latest bargain from richer sounds, when it would have been a lot cheaper to go to a decent hifi shop and buy some decent kit that they will keep for many years, and just listen to music instead.

I agree completely.

Audiophiles use music to listen to HiFi.
Ordinary people do it the other way round.

I’m still using the same turntable and CD player I had in the 80’s.
Only replaced my Royds because they fell to bits.
🙂

I bought the MA’s from my local shop btw – lovely people, great service etc.
But I still made a mistake, after loads of demos.

And there really are some bad salesmen out there in the ‘decent’ specialist shops.
I really have met some complete bell-ends over the years.

Some of the lower end kit in RS might be a bit dubious, but the salespeople, in the Prestwich branch at least, are excellent.

Some of the lower end kit in RS might be a bit dubious, but the salespeople, in the Prestwich branch at least, are excellent.

what I don’t like about RS is how they seem to manage to enter into distribution deals with people, then go exclusive, then drive the price down, then take-over the company when it goes to the wall – or something like that.

Cambridge Audio, Gale and others.

Related to Carphone Warehouse…

I did however buy the book “Richers Legal Nuggets” from there as well, where I learnt that you need at least an inch of penetration to consummate a marriage…

Not sure about their sales staff either. When I was looking for a TV recently I had a look in their stores and it is the usual thing of driving everything in store demo mode with HD material and trying to shove Samsung and LG down your throat – contrast that to the local Sevenoaks where the manager had everything set up with decent settings like you would have at home.

Some high-end shops have some excellent salespeople, in contrast. Walrus systems in London, for example. Although it is shutting down soon though – probably because people don’t value proper hifi but prefer to go to Richer Sounds and waste it there.

It is possibly a little similar to the story of the LBS vs Halfords…

Audiophiles use music to listen to HiFi.

Very well put, sadly.

When testing Hi-Fi for sure.

OP here….Thanks for all the advice. Reminds me of the old flats vs spuds debate! Looks like I’m going to have to make a pilgrimage to the hifi shop, it’s like buying a bike without riding it (or getting married without dating!). that said the Tannoys mentioned above look good. As does th AE Raduis 2 and Q Acoustic ..One thing that is being clear..a new amp will likely be needed…

Keep up the banter 🙂

Audiophiles use music to listen to HiFi.

STW’ers use trails to ride bikes, ordinary folk use bikes to ride trails!

It has always been said you should spend most on the source and less down the chain. I didn’t subscribe to that view and blew the budget on a set of Sonus Faber speakers to run with a modest Music Fidelity A1 and Marantz CD player. Even the shop were surprised at the sound.

Those 17 year old speakers are now part of a full SF surround sound system with REL subwoofer. They are driven by a £350 Onkyo receiver (the only one that was small enough to fit in the cupboard) with a Sonos source.

My personal advice is to find a nice forgiving speaker that probably imparts “character” and feed it a reasonable digital signal.

I find wearing my socks inside out gives better audio buffering of the upper ranges, with the added benefit of increased squared edged hit and small bump sensitivity in the negative soundscape. Oh, and alter the angle of your brake levers speakers to reduce ear pump.

I’ve been listening to sounds for some of my life and in that time i listened to a lot of things – believe you me. I’m not just typing this for my benefit, it’s for yours – as, as i say, i’m an expert. But i wasn’t always and it’s something i’ve worked hard on.

I’m not too proud to say it, but i’ve had special training. I’ve been to two Listening days, and despite thinking i knew how to listen – i learned more in those two days than i have in my whole life. I had picked up some bad habits and was listening to the wrong things in the wrong way. One day on the course helped me find the right way. It’s not a quick fix – you have to force yourself to listen, but practice makes perfect, and perfect practice makes the medicine go down.

Here’s a list of words that i use to describe the sounds i’m listening to. As you can see there’s so much more to listening that just using your ears.

Accurate – The music is unaltered by the recording or playback equipment. Ideally, to sound identical to the original music.

Aggressive – Forward and bright sonic character.

Airy – Spacious. Open. Instruments sound like they are surrounded by a large reflective space full of air. Good reproduction of high frequency reflections. High frequency response extends to 15 or 20 kHz.

Ambience – Impression of an acoustic space, such as the performing hall in which a recording was made.

Analytical – Highly detailed.

Articulate – Intelligibility of voice(s) and instruments and the interactions between them.

Attack – The leading edge of a note and the ability of a system to reproduce the attack transients in music.

Attack (2) – The time taken for a musical note to reach its peak amplitude eg. notes will tend to sound more defined rather than blended with other notes.

Balance – essentially tonal balance, the degree to which one aspect of the sonic spectrum is emphasized above the rest. Also channel balance, the relative level of the left and right stereo channels.

Bass – The audio frequencies between about 60Hz and 250Hz.

Bassy – Emphasized Bass.

Blanketed – Weak highs, as if a blanket were put over the speakers.

Bloated – Excessive mid bass around 250 Hz. Poorly damped low frequencies, low frequency resonances. See tubby.

Blurred – Poor transient response. Vague stereo imaging not focused.

Body – Fullness of sound, with particular emphasis on upper bass; opposite of Thin.

Boomy – Excessive bass around 125 Hz. Poorly damped low frequencies or low frequency resonances.

Boxy – Having resonances as if the music were enclosed in a box. Sometimes an emphasis around 250 to 500 Hz.

Breathy – Audible breath sounds in woodwinds and reeds such as flute or sax. Good response in the upper mids or highs.

Bright – A sound that emphasizes the upper midrange/lower treble. Harmonics are strong relative to fundamentals.

Brilliance – The 6kHz to 16kHz range controls the brilliance and clarity of sounds. Too much emphasis in this range can produce sibilance on the vocals.

Chesty – The vocalist sounds like their chest is too big. A bump in the low frequency response around 125 to 250 Hz.

Clear – See Transparent.

Closed – A closed-in sound lacking in openness, delicacy, air, and fine detail usually caused by Roll-off above 10kHz; in contrast to Open.

Congested- Smeared, confused, muddy, and flat; lacking transparency.

Coloured – Having timbres that are not true to life. Non flat response; peaks or dips.

Cool- Moderately deficient in body and warmth, due to progressive attenuation of frequencies below about 150Hz.

Crisp – Extended high frequency response, especially with cymbals.

Dark – A tonal balance that tilts downwards with increasing frequency. Opposite of bright. Weak high frequencies.

Decay – The fadeout of a note, it follows the attack.

Definition (or resolution) – The ability of a component to reveal the subtle information that is fundamental to high fidelity sound.

Delicate – High frequencies extending to 15 or 20 kHz without peaks.

Depth – A sense of distance (near to far) of different instruments.

Detail – The most delicate elements of the original sound and those which are the first to disappear with lesser equipment.

Detailed – Easy to hear tiny details in the music; articulate. Adequate high frequency response, sharp transient response.

Dry – Lack of reverberation or delay as produced by a damped environment. May comes across as fine grained and lean. Opposite of Wet.

Dull – See Dark.

Dynamic – The suggestion of energy and wide dynamic. Related to perceived speed as well as contrasts in volume both large and small.

Edgy – Too much high frequency response. Trebly. Harmonics are too strong relative to the fundamentals. Distorted, having unwanted harmonics that add an edge or raspiness.

Euphonic – An appealing form of distortion that generally enhances perceived fidelity, often ascribed to the harmonic elaborations of some valve amps.

Fast – Good reproduction of rapid transients which increase the sense of realism and “snap”.

Fat – See Full and Warm. Or, spatially diffuse; a sound is panned to one channel, delayed, and then the delayed sound is panned to the other channel. Or, slightly distorted with analogue tape distortion or tube distortion.

Focus – A strong, precise sense of image projection.

Forward(ness) – Similar to an aggressive sound, a sense of image being projected in front of the speakers and of music being forced upon the listener. Compare “Laid-back”.

Full – Strong fundamentals relative to harmonics. Good low frequency response, not necessarily extended, but with adequate level around 100 to 300 Hz. Male voices are full around 125 Hz; female voices and violins are full around 250 Hz; sax is full around 250 to 400 Hz. Opposite of thin.

Gentle – Opposite of edgy. The harmonics (of the highs and upper mids) are not exaggerated, or may even be weak.

Grainy – A slightly raw, exposed sound which lacks finesse. Not liquid or fluid.

Grip – A sense of control and sturdiness in the bass.

Grungy – Lots of harmonic or I.M. (Intermodulation) distortion.

Hard – Too much upper midrange, usually around 3 kHz. Or, good transient response, as if the sound is hitting you hard. Uncomfortable, forward, aggressive sound with a metallic tinge.

Harsh – Grating, abrasive. Too much upper midrange. Peaks in the frequency response between 2 and 6 kHz. Or, excessive phase shift in a digital recorder’s low pass filter.

Headstage – The perception of the Soundstage while listening to headphones.

Highs – The audio frequencies above about 6000 Hz.

High Midrange (High Mids, Upper Mids) – The audio frequencies between about 2kHz and 6kHz.

Hollow – Recessed mids.

Honky – Like cupping your hands around your mouth. A bump in the response around 500 to 700 Hz.

Imaging – The sense that a voice or instrument is in a particular place in the room.

Juicy – Sound that has joie de vivre, energy and life.

Laid-back – Recessed, distant-sounding, having exaggerated depth, usually because of a dished midrange. Compare “Forward”.

Liquid – Textureless sound.

Low Level Detail – The quietest sounds in a recording.

Low Midrange (Low Mids) – The audio frequencies between about 250Hz and 2000Hz.

Lush – Very Rich/Full.

Lush (2) – A “lush” sound has a sense of warmth and fullness. Notes are more authoritative and have a sense of life about them. It is a sound free of any sibilance or brightness. It does not mean colored, however. It is an open and inviting sound enveloping the listener into its soundstage. (source: unkown headfier)

Mellow – Reduced high frequencies, not Edgy.

Midrange (Mids) – The audio frequencies between about 250 Hz and 6000 Hz.

Muddy – Not clear. Weak harmonics, smeared time response, I.M. distortion.

Muffled – Sounds like it is covered with a blanket. Weak highs or weak upper mids.

Musical (or musicality) – A sense of cohesion and subjective “rightness” in the sound.

Nasal – Honky, a bump in the response around 600 Hz.

Naturalness – Realism.

Opaque – Unclear, lacking Transparency.

Open – Sound which has height and “air”, relates to clean upper midrange and treble.

Pace – Often assoc. with rhythm, a strong sense of timing and beat.

Piercing – Strident, hard on the ears, screechy. Having sharp, narrow peaks in the response around 3 to 10 kHz.

PRaT – Pace, Rhythm and Timing

Presence Range – The presence range between 4kHz and 6kHz is responsible for the clarity and definition of voices and instruments. Increasing this range can make the music seem closer to the listener. Reducing the 5kHz content makes the sound more distant and transparent.

Presence – A sense that the instrument in present in the listening room. Synonyms are edge, punch, detail, closeness and clarity. Adequate or emphasized response around 5 kHz for most instruments, or around 2 to 5 kHz for kick drum and bass.

Puffy – A bump in the response around 500 Hz.

Punchy – Good reproduction of dynamics. Good transient response, with strong impact. Sometimes a bump around 5 kHz or 200 Hz.

Range – The distance between the lowest and highest tones.

Resolution (or Resolving) – See Definition

Rich – See Full. Also, having euphonic distortion made of even order harmonics.

Roll-off (Rolloff) – The gradual attenuation that occurs at the lower or upper frequency range of a driver, network, or system. The roll-off frequency is usually defined as the frequency where response is reduced by 3 dB.

Round – High frequency rolloff or dip. Not edgy.

Rhythm – The controlled movement of sounds in time.

Saturation – The point at which a magnetic tape is fully magnetized and will accept no more magnetization.

Seismic – Very low bass that you feel rather than hear.

Shrill – Strident, Steely.

Sibilant (or Sibilance) – “Essy”, exaggerated “s” or “sh” sounds in vocals. Sibilant sounds carry most of their energy through the 4Khz to 8Khz range, but can extend to 10kHz, depending on the individual. Sibilance is often heard on radio.

Sizzly – See Sibilant. Also, too much highs on cymbals.

Smeared – Lacking detail; poor transient response, too much leakage between microphones; poorly focused images.

Smooth – Easy on the ears, not harsh. Flat frequency response, especially in the midrange. Lack of peaks and dips in the response.

Snap – A system with good speed and transient response can deliver the immediacy or “snap” of live instruments.

Soundstage – The area between two speakers that appears to the listener to be occupied by sonic images. Like a real stage, a soundstage should have width, depth, and height.

Spacious – Conveying a sense of space, ambiance, or room around the instruments; stereo reverb; early reflections.

Speed – A fast system with good pace gives the impression of being right on the money in its timing.

Steely – Emphasized upper mids around 3 to 6 kHz. Peaky, non flat high frequency response. See Harsh, Edgy.

Strident – See Harsh, Edgy.

Sturdy – Solid, powerful, robust sound.

Sub-Bass – The audio frequencies between about 20Hz and 80Hz.

Sweet – Not strident or piercing. Delicate. Flat high frequency response, low distortion. Lack of peaks in the response. Highs are extended to 15 or 20 kHz, but they are not bumped up. Often used when referring to cymbals, percussion, strings, and sibilant sounds.

Telephone Like – See Tinny.

Texture – A perceptible pattern or structure in reproduced sound.

Thick – A lack of articulation and clarity in the bass.

Thin – Fundamentals are weak relative to harmonics; bass light.

Tight – Good low frequency transient response and detail.

Timbre – The tonal character of an instrument

Timing – A sense of precision in tempo.

Tinny – Narrowband, weak lows, peaky mids. The music sounds like it is coming through a telephone or tin can.

Tone – The sound of definite pitch.

Transient – The leading edge of a percussive sound. Good transient response makes the sound as a whole more live and realistic.

Transparent – Easy to hear into the music, detailed, clear, not muddy. Wide flat frequency response, sharp time response, very low distortion and noise. A hear through quality that is akin to clarity and reveals all aspects of detail.

Treble – The highest part of music and voice. See Highs. (Most often used when referring to the treble control on amplifiers).

Tubby – Having low frequency resonances as if you’re singing in a bathtub. See bloated.

Upper Midrange (Upper Mids, High Mids) – The audio frequencies between 2 kHz and 6 kHz.

Veiled – Like a silk veil is over the speakers. Slight noise or distortion or slightly weak high frequencies. Loss of detail due to limited transparency.

Warm – Good bass, adequate low frequencies, adequate fundamentals relative to harmonics. Not thin. Also excessive bass or mid bass. Also, pleasantly spacious, with adequate reverberation at low frequencies. Also see Rich, Round. Warm highs means sweet highs.

Wet – A reverberant sound, something with decay. Opposite of Dry.

Weighty – Good low frequency response below about 50 Hz. A sense of substance and underpinning produced by deep, controlled bass. Suggesting an object of great weight or power, like a diesel locomotive.

Woolly – Loose, ill-defined bass.

It has always been said you should spend most on the source and less down the chain.

That was in the days of turntables which had lots of mechanical bits and so good ones often cost more.

With CDs the improvement with expenditure isn’t necessarily there so much.

What the hell, Euro?

Euro, I hear strava are working on an audiophile strava app so you can record your listening effort and share it with others. It really opens up the soundstage.

All your drivers are now obsolete. Need to be 1.5″ larger.

hey Euro that post is hilarious (but true!)