Audiophile terminology helps the initiated communicate what they’re hearing: a means of describing with words sounds that we hear.
One of my favorites is transparency—see through sound. I love this term because it makes no sense until you’ve actually heard it.
Sound is the movement of air at wave frequencies too low for our eyes to record. Hearing is the job of our more mechanically minded tympanic membranes called ears.
What our ears record our brains interpret as imaginary images: a trumpet player, a vocalist, a standup bass. Each of these imaginary musicians hold a fixed space behind the loudspeakers. Often, they crowd out other musicians in the set preventing us from seeing around them—a lack of transparency.
As a designer of circuits that improve transparency, how in the world would I ever explain this phenomenon in terms a measurement-based engineer might understand?
I fear the divide between camps is far too great to reach common ground.
There’s just not enough transparency.
Paul McGowan
