Do Audiophile Terms Make Sense? We Asked Some Normal People to Find Out.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2024
- Resolve's Audiophile Term Tier List: • Audiophile Term Tierlist
-- Music Used For Testing --
Punch and Dynamics:
"Rosanna" -Toto
"What's The Difference?" - Dr. Dre
Warm:
"Sante" -Stromae
"Come Together" The Beatles
Spacious:
"Limehouse Blues" - Arne Domnérus
"The Mandalorian" - Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson
Sibilance:
"Moving On and Getting Over" - John Mayer
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0:00-2:30 Intro
2:30-6:04 Term I: Punch & Dynamics
6:04-8:24 Term II: Warm
8:24-9:59 Term III: Spacious
9:59-13:18 Term IV: Sibilance
13:18-14:28 Outro/Conclusion
You're a headphones nerd when you know the answer to the questions without listening to the headphones.
ye, as soon as i saw beyer on the sibilance question i was like XDDD
You're right HAHA
Just dropping in to say the HD 800S has warmer mids than the HD 650, which could be responsible for homie calling it warmer.
The ones that I always found confusing were "honk", "shout", and "air". "Analytic" I kind of get, but I am very much listening in the budget space, so I doubt I have heard anything that counts as that.
Honk and shout are midrange imbalances. Air is treble balance. Hedphones often have imbalanced highs, where there is more lower highs than upper highs. Air is when there's no such problem. If you have too much air, treble can sound artificial, but that's rarely the case, mostly just some planars.
There are pretty of analytic budget options. The technology’s getting good man
@@sephondranzer yup, Austrian Audio has some very analytical headphones at much cheaper prices
Air is basically extra upper treble
Shout & honk basically refers to too much mid range quantity, usually in the upper mids (2-3kHz).
By the way, you defined warm as dark. Warm is more of a boost in the upper bass to lower mids. Dark is about rolled off highs. HD650 is slightly dark but seems darker than it is because of its added warmth when compared to hd600s for example.
dt990 for example is both warm and bright at the same time.
yeah kinda confused at first aren't cutting treble off is dark and not warm
This was fascinating! Really great stuff, Chrono!
Having normal people describe the difference between soundstage and image would be really interesting, also I'd like to see the headphones being used in more situations, like gaming or movies would be fun as well.
These videos have been great, I hope you keep them coming
Yes imaging vs soundstage. A few more terms: shouty, ear gain and timbre.
@@kennethgross8079 timbre is probably the easiest cause it applies to anything that makes sound, not just headphones, etc. Voices, instruments, anything has timbre, but whether people would guess it or not is purely if they know the on-paper definition of timbre. Not really something people could guess just from listening to 2 headphones and being told the word.
Marvelous idea for a video, entertaining and educational!
“PRAT” pace rhythm and timing- the toe tapping impulse :)
“Vulgar level of treble” needs to be adopted - brilliant
The banter is quite enjoyable too :)
Then you get warm/bright headphones and people be like “huh?”
😅
Entertaining and for cultivating a better understanding of language and perception. I really do hope that in the future, that those like me can get a better understanding of this channel’s various reviewer leanings toward fav genres, albums and artist tastes & preferences; what we see with some non headphone centric reviewers who strike a good balance between the engineering / tech side and the music & relative productions they are passionate about.
resolution , imaging, speed ( the most controversial one)
Hi an avid viewer from Tokyo here. Love your videos. Can you guys do a review on IEM cases?
I recently bought an u12t but had trouble finding the right case that would protect them (from dust, water and other outside forces) and at the same time was easy/comfortable to use.
Sorry if you guys already have released these types of video on your channel😂
"Attack" and "Timing" I've read those 2 terms quite a bit in various reviews, still have no idea what it means. Googling those terms didn't help either.
Attack could just be a different sense of macro dynamics - the sense of immediacy of the notes. Timing doesn’t really make sense in any context for headphones
They're terms from voice synthesis. Watch some theory on synths and you'll hear attack, sustain, decay, release. Different drivers have different timing. Estats and balanced armatures have short timing so you hear more attack with them than with other drivers.
Attack is a term used a lot in music production. It’s basically the time it takes for a sound to reach its full volume. Most sounds take a fraction of a second to swell from very quiet to very loud. Then the sound gets quieter over time, which is called “decay”. No idea what this has to do with headphones though. Don’t know what timing is referring to either🤷♀️
Attack and timing is not a thing in headphones, they're minimum phase systems, because of that: frequency response = impulse response.
@@toinfinity095 In gear reviews they're used as subjective terms to convey how the reviewer hears transients. When you're trying to describe the differences in reproduction of detail, you might find this way to be the easiest to communicate it. I think this came to the audiophile language from engineers who work with synths a lot and this kind of description comes to them naturally. Of course we're not talking about literal usage of those words.
12:13 what happens to your mixing? I was using open back headphone, and I thought someone beside me at that exact time lol
This was interesting that it popped in my feed. Also somewhat scary. We just listened to an IWI review of a product where he used the word lush. I told my wife that for anyone that doesn't have other words in their vocabulary that would align with what the video author means when using the word lush... You can't actually know what they mean when they use it. Commenting before watching. Looking forward to watching now. Peace!
This is an interesting discussion. I don't know all these terms used to describe sound. After watching many reviews I have a slight sense of what the reviewer is trying to say, but definitely most of the terms are not intuitive. Just like they were describing the sounds from the saxophone and horns, I find it more useful when the sound is being described by talking about how a particular song the reviewer is listening to sounded like to them. Over all I am enjoying this series, I still don't think they are "normies", but nonetheless these videos are both interesting and fun to watch.
Do more of these.
This was great . I've been listening to you guys for almost 2 yrs . I get all the terms . 😹😹😹
Lol 5:00 “tactility” and “dynamics” are also words that will confuse folks 😂
I was confused by them. Is it referring to being able to separate the sound from each instrument? At some point I'm just expecting for a reviewer to pull a Gordon Ramsey and say that the sound was "raw"; unless that is another term I don't know about.
@@alejandroelciddynamics is like different volume level for different sound. This gives a visceral feelings to sound. Makes the sound lively. Like each drum stike having different volume based on how hard they were hit. Cheap earphones might struggle with dynamics and could sound flat and boring.
Why did you render the video with chunky black bars at top and bottom? Use the correct aspect ratio so it show full screen on 21:9 monitors too. The content was great though, as always.
Love this, taking notes.
Respect to the pu Pu Pu Pu refering to punch 👊 😂
I looked up "prat" and felt stupid after.
appreciate the fact that you brought in someone from the pro audio space.
It's a Chrono Mad Libs game. "Harsh and Sibilant" in the treble is always my biggest fear when listening to a New headphone
This is proof that the hi-fi industry is doomed to niche nerds forever. :D
People will spend thousands on a TV but balk at hundreds on a headphone, yet audio is more important than video! (360p + good audio >> 4K with bad audio)
@@Mandragara I don’t think anyone would agree honestly. Better picture quality is objective and can be benchmarked but its not really possibly to measure timber, soundstage, imaging etc
@@Mandragara absolutely not lol
@@KopfdesRiesen Would you rather a 360p video with good audio or a 4K blu-ray with bad audio? Would you rather listen to a movie with no picture, or watch a movie with the sound off?
@@DIBSonMandyRose Are you sure? I think you're just not paying attention.
Maybe the difference sound between like mp3, AAC, FLAC and etc? That would be interesting i think 🤔
Nice. I find the term warmth confusing for many because an emphasized treble response can sound hot and therefore can be considered to evoke the word warm.
Warmth always confused me. I thought it meant excitement in the high frequencies. Same with "cold", thought it meant what dark means
i was waiting for the term -> dark 😂
Term IV: Sibilance. In the first frame where I saw the guy pulling of the DT 990 pros from his head I was like:“ yep THESE“
"it has a shout" ok I'm using that phrase in future.
Needs more bump and fizz.
Detail and microdynamics and speed please :)
They're 3 words for the same thing.
"Technicalities." As far as I can tell, it means "I have a lot of headphones and need to be able to justify that life choice."
"Fast" and "Slow." Meaningless.
@The HEADPHONE Show
IMO, when doing ANY Headphone or Speaker REVIEW, you should decide on a consistent set of *5 Different Well-Recorded Tracks* that you ALWAYS USE in EVERY REVIEW to describe the "Sound Characteristics" of any Speaker or Headphone/IEM.
That way readers/viewers/listeners of your reviews can always play and listen to those SAME TRACKS EVERY TIME so it is relateable.
Then you can more precisely describe the characteristics of each instrument and/or vocal in the track as well as the characteristics of the Soundstage.
For example, you could say that the individual Ride Cymbal Strikes and sticking in Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" were more clearly defined and present (or not) and were precisely placed in the soundstage with no smearing or vagueness as with such-and-such headphone.
Or that "the 30Hz bass note in Lorde's Royals track was lacking its normal definition, impact and authority" on the headphones under review as oppossed to such-and-such other headphones.
Or that "the Upright Acoustic Bass solo in the Steph Johnson Trio's *Summertime* track on the *Nature Girl* album were incredibly lifelike with excellent Dynamics and Resolution".
Tying descriptions of experience with particular headphones doesn't really seem like a good idea as they might not be hearing those the same way as you do. Audiophile discourse uses a specific language and the way you learn a language is through exposure. Very simple A/B comparisons using a simple eq filter are probably helpful though, like the ones DMS did in his videos.
Mmmm. When the question of if sibilance was bad or not came up. I think it would have been better to leave it at, "it's subjective" at most.
Sadly there are a lot of Audiophile bullshit and terrible measuring headphones like Abyss for $5K and so called Audiophiles buy them. I'm amused by how many stupid people are willing to spend money for shitty headphones. Glad you can make a living out of that.
"Treble region that I would describe as being very warm" - but warm/cold doesn't refer to treble at all, man. It refers to the lower part of the frequency response. What refers to the upper part of the frequency response is bright/dark. And what could also impact it is note weight, which is more independent of frequency.
Having sibilance is not necessarily bad, I do like a little bit of it to add that nice sparkle in vocals. (sparkle is a nice word to ask about hehe)
one person's sparkle is another's amazon return 😇
Sparkle has a positive connotation, where as sibilance has a negative connotation for most people.
@@chungang7037 LOL 👍
@@jamesbittle9789 👍
@The HEADPHONE Show
The majority of people know what simple BASS and TREBLE controls do and how they affect the sound on their basic car or home stereos, so I would tend to stick with derivatives of those terms when describing the Spectral Balance or Tonality of a speaker or headphone/IEM.
For instance, refer to the...
Lowest or Deep Bass notes (45Hz & lower...Synth Bass, Low Pipe Organ, etc.)
Bass (45Hz-80Hz Kick Drum & Bass Guitar, Acoustic Upright Double Bass, Tuba)
Midbass region (90Hz-150Hz, Bass Guitar, Tuba)
Lower Midrange (Baritone Male vocals)
Midrange (male & female vocals)
Upper Midrange (female vocals)
Lower Treble
Treble
Upper Treble
Wait, dynamics doesn't refer to dynamic range? I've been trolled.
@D Z
Right? Yes, it should IMO. But the term "Dynamics" is most often used to describe "Instantaneous Transient Dynamics"...aka the intensity of a sharp or sudden sound like a nearby fireworks explosion, close large artillary, a close gunshot, or a rim-shot on a snare drum, relative to the "background noise" or average music level.
its wrong to tell someone more treble on a headphone is bad... bad for who? it can be perfect for older people or people with hearing loss. who made you the person to decide for all?
i know im going to get hate for this...
use sound demo comparison if people don't know what term you referring to
Thanks for this, the terms I don’t like are: plucked & plankton.
I mean, come on!
Detailed, spatiality, sound stage...
MORE MORE MORE
Detail never made sense as a positive term, because for most music you are hearing more with a mid-fi headphone than any mastering engineer or musician did in playback in the studio decades ago, and what you hear will often not be pleasant and not what the artist intended, regardless of what else they may have intended.
Thats why audio is subjective. Most people like to hear the small nuances in recordings. Its mind blowing for them the first time because they "hear everything".
@@TheDevestatorX Right, but "nuances" only refers to the handful of albums that are well recorded, for the rest we are talking about mistakes or neglect in the mastering process that no one was supposed to hear. Or are there people that enjoy listening to that? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised if there is...
I had the very same issue recently while deciding between the Hexa, Kato and Salnotes Zero. I had all of them here and as a rather new guy to IEM's I looked up what people thought and I found out that the Hexa and Kato has more "Resolution" and "Detail" and to this day can't really point to what they mean here. Maybe I'm deaf but to me the Hexa and Kato is simply tuned a bit differently, but there is no improvement in perceived "Quality" in this department to me at least. I decided to have both the Kato and the Zero, but I prefer the Zero a bit. I would also not say that my HD6XX has more detail or resolution than any of the IEM's.
@@Nokamigg yea IEMs are a mixed bag, I've demoed 4000$ Lime ears before and heard some interesting 3d depth soundscape effects and clarity in imaging that you don't normally hear with IEMs, but yea the detail and timbre wasn't really there compared to much cheaper full sized headphones.
@@Nokamigg My shuoer s12 have a bit more detail then my Thieaudio Ghosts. They just feel a bit less smooth which i like myself. Imo detail is a real thing but i think you rather notice if its the opposite, the lack of detail
Ask people who can't hear the headphones, THEN see how much sense it makes. People are watching a video, not A/B listening to the headphones themselves. If you really want to give people some kind of reference over TH-cam, you have to record each headphone as best you can. This will not really give viewers an idea of what each headphone really sounds like of course, but it will help establish what the differences are, through the mic, through youtube, and through the views headphones
Rather than just rely on terms alone it would help if reviewers actually described how they listened to sound. As an example, when they were describing how the horns in that one Drake song felt sudden and made them jump in one of the headphones that was a helpful description.
It'd be great if you'd bring on some actual audio-engineers. But they are probably not as exciting, as they won't use 98% of the adjectives normally used by audiophiles......
Audiophile terminology is top tier for anyone to understand tbh. When trying to convey what you're hearing, I think audiophile vocabulary is amazing in doing that.
Maybe the reason why normal people don’t understand is because it’s all bullshit? 🤪
Yeah, some audiophile terms are definitely nonsensical. Gotta be honest, I don't think you did a good job explaining these terms. Take "punch/slam" or "warm" for example... you just threw even more audiophile word salad at them (physicality, downshelfed past 5k, etc) to explain an already word salady term... Why not simply say "warm means more mid/low frequency..."
Realistically, the terms themselves are not all that intuitive, but people can deduce the meaning given 2 sentences you provided for each.
HAHAHA a vulgar amount of treble
No, they dont. Its a way for people to act pretentious by using unrelated words to describe something. It would be like me calling the taste of lobster as "loud" or "twinkly". There are better descriptors within the realms of hearing and sound. The reason audiophiles use them is to be purposefully obtuse so that they cant be called out on their bs descriptors. When they call something "dry" or "brittle", ask them specifically what part of the song sounds like that, and bet money they'll say, "well at least to me that's what it sounds like". Deflective pretention at it's finest.
No.
Dt 990 are atrociously bright. Garbage headphones
First 😏