Warm sound, cold sound... whats it to you?

[hermanv]

Alexander Bell coined the measurement a "Bell" at what he thought was the first noticable change. It later turned out that a "Bell" was quite large so we divided it by ten and called it a decibell. The fact that 1 dB is close to the smallest change is sort of an accident. By the way thats why the B in dB is capitalized like Volts, Amperes and Hertz it is someone's name.

[RGA]

Warm to me is a bit veiled and a bloomey bass -- cold is grainy or harsh and fatguing treble and or lacks decay. Neither is good but the former I'd take over the latter if push came to shove simply because ti doesn;t give me a puounding headache after two tracks.

[Geoffcin]

Warm to me is a bit veiled and a bloomey bass -- cold is grainy or harsh and fatguing treble and or lacks decay. Neither is good but the former I'd take over the latter if push came to shove simply because ti doesn;t give me a puounding headache after two tracks.

According to your definitions a speaker can be both warm and cold!

[RGA]

According to your definitions a speaker can be both warm and cold!

Yeah that's why I try not to use the terms -- because they're silly -- plenty of Klipsch speakers are described as bright and or cold -- yet they ALSO have the midbass humps other people in this thread say is a criterian for warm. Still SOME of these speakers that exhibit BOTH traits still come out to me as cold in that they're bright...Thus the TRUMP factor ios the harsh/bright sound.

Of Course Geoffcin if you've never heard a speaker with a big mid bass bloom and also had a piercing treble then I can't help you (see many a horn). A warm only speaker won't have the treble annoyance which is why I stated I could live with it over the other.

The same stupid adjectives of polite and Agressive I've used myself from time to time...Uggh -- bunch of drivel magazine writers concocted.

[StanleyMuso]

I'm not sure what it means to other people, but, and perhaps I'm applying the wrong terms or characteristics to it, to me it means a certain smoothness and sweetness. One of my many tastes in music is classical stuff, all types, from solo, to chamber to orchestral, as well as all types of song. I am very familiar with violins, and let me tell you, they all sound different - if you have the ear for it, particular violins have characteristic sounds, and individual instruments can be recognised by their tonal or other characteristics, just like you can recognise your favourite singer from the very first notes they sing. Also, people who are into piano say they can tell what type of piano was used for a recording if the recording and the equipment it is played on is good enough. It's the same with violins - some performers have several, and chose to use particular instruments for particular purposes. Perhaps one which is brash and hard for a hoe-down, and another which is sweet and alluring for a romance.

I want a system which will allow me to distinguish the different characteristics of the instruments I listen to. If my violinist has changed his instrument half way throught the concert, I want to be able to hear it. I still remember my very first purchase of a CD, a well known work, which incidentally, I also had on LP of. What a disappointment. All the subtlety, the emotion, the warmth had disappeared. All that remained was a cold homogeneity, albeit with no surface noise, and a harshness I can't even describe. What a let down after all the hype. I admit that more modern releases are now a lot better, and since I upgraded my system, even that original disk sounds better. Or have I just got used to it?

The conclusion to all this? I want the warmth of a warm sounding violin to get through, I want the true voice and emotion of my singers to get through. I don't want my music coming out cold and unemotional. I don't want it changed in any way. My one concession - if the recording has too much treble sibilance on it, I will tame it with a tone control. My ear finds sibilance extremely unpleasant.

So what sort of system do I need? I guess, as long as the recording is faithful to the performance, I have to vote for a neutral system.