Related Terms of Headphone Sound Quality - Part One

As a headphones consumer who is focus on sound quality, you may encountered such a problem of describing sound quality or tone, which is such a subjective and abstract concept, during the process of purchasing or sharing the experience of using headphones.

In fact, the terminology of sound quality evaluation is not lacking in some universal and quite targeted words can be used to evaluate the sound quality of headphones, here comes the list of some relevant evaluation of the terminology of sound quality.

Sound Range

Range refers to the range of notes from the lowest to the highest that a person's voice or musical instrument can achieve.

Tone

Tone is one of the basic properties of sound.  The sound produced by different sounders has different timbres due to different materials and structures.

Sound Coloring

Colored sound is contrary to the natural neutrality of music, which means the sound is rendered with characteristics that are not presented in the original. Sound coloring includes various modifications and changes to the sound, such as the sound equalizer, various bass systems, adjustment of surround sound field and the rendering of the machine itself.

Distortion

In an ideal amplifier, the output waveform should be exactly the same as the input waveform except for amplification, but in practice, the output cannot be exactly the same as the input waveform, and this phenomenon is called distortion.

Dynamic Range

Dynamic Range is the range of areas where the maximum and minimum values of variable signals (such as sound or light) are allowed to be recorded.

Transient Response

The ability of the equipment to follow the sudden signal in the music. Transient response of good equipment should be a signal to respond immediately, the signal stopped once the crunch.

Signal-to-noise ratio

Signal-to-noise ratio is the ratio of signal to noise in an electronic device or electronic system.

Airy

Airy is an acoustic term used to indicate that there is air surrounding the sound image of an instrument. It is used to indicate the airiness and openness of a treble, or the spacing between instruments in a soundstage.

Low-frequency Extension

Low-frequency extension refers to the lowest frequency that can be replayed by audio equipment. It is used to determine the scale to what extent the sound system or speaker can dive when replaying bass.

Brightness

It means highlighting the high frequency band of 4kHz-8kHz when the harmonics are relatively stronger than the fundamental wave. The brightness itself is not a problem, live concerts have bright sound, what matter is that the brightness has to be limited in the right proportion. Otherwise，too bright (or even whistling) can be annoying.