Headphone Terminology - a request

[mr_superlove]

As a budding audiophile, I sometimes find myself reading reviews here on Head-Fi and thinking, "What does that mean?"

Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't one already, but I'd like to request a sticky that is full of terms (decay, frequency response, driver, a/b test, etc.) that a new person could spy, then read some headphone reviews and make sense of what the experienced reviewer is writing about.

It'd be great to have one sticky per forum with terms that are specific to the forum, as well as those that span forums.

If not a sticky, perhaps someone could just refer me to any previous threads or web sites with this or start carrying this one along. It would be appreciated.

Just a suggestion.

 

[Duncan]

Hi Mr Superlove.

We have had a couple of attempts at doing an FAQ for the site (differing from the one that Jude has set up) but - it actually ends up being a surprisingly steep hill to climb when thinking about what actually needs to go into one.

It would be interesting - a year or so on, if newer members or even original members could put a new spring in the FAQs step.

 

[Wmcmanus]

This is a good idea, and various people have tried this approach before. As I recall, there are at least a couple of threads concerning terminology where some experienced head-if members attempted to put together the lexicon in a user friendly fashion. Maybe someone can provide a link?

The problem I see with it, is that no matter how you try to deal with the issue, the reality is that different audio terms mean different things to different people, especially when attempting to describe various sonic characteristics informally. By informally, I mean when responding to a thread on the fly without attempting to carefully measure every word you use. The more "formal" review writers tend to do a good job at laying out what they mean by the terminology they use. At a minimum, you can get an understanding of what most people mean when they use various terms by reading their posts in the context of their experience. When in doubt, simply ask the person who seems to have misused a term what they meant by their statement.

This is not to say that I think it's useless to try to get people to agree on what various terms mean, or to educate newbies. Yet, to my way of thinking, this sort of thing is an inherent limitation of the audio hobby that we will always have to deal with.

 

[Spacko]

Here's a link for a list of terms:

http://www.kiwirant.co.nz/articles/audiophileterms.html

Hope it helps

 

[Kirosia]

Since we might add more stickies . . . would it be a bad idea to have sub-forum dedicated to them? They're kinda crowding the mains forum a bit already.

 

[dwin902]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spacko Here's a link for a list of terms: http://www.kiwirant.co.nz/articles/audiophileterms.html Hope it helps

The "audiophile" definition is dead-on

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwin902 The "audiophile" definition is dead-on

I added that one as a joke, and it appears it stayed in this version of the audiophile terms. John_JCB and I worked for several weeks on this list. We added a lot of headphone only terms to make it more relevant to this site, and modified some others as well. It may need some more work, and words added, but it works well.

 

[saint.panda]

A few months ago I received the word document "audiophile terms" from john_jcb upon request. It seems that the website quoted uses the same text. This document has proven to be a very helpful tool for understanding and using audio-related terminologies. Thanks a lot for the effort and time that went into writing this.

 

[mr_superlove]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saint.panda A few months ago I received the word document "audiophile terms" from john_jcb upon request. It seems that the website quoted uses the same text. This document has proven to be a very helpful tool for understanding and using audio-related terminologies. Thanks a lot for the effort and time that went into writing this.

Yes, it is very helpful. Thanks! I sat through lunch saying to myself, "No ****!?"