Addendum, audio vocabulary words starting with letters M through W,
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.
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.