Openness

PS Audio

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<!-- #thumb --> <p>To start this series on Audiophile terminology, I wrote a list and at the top of that list was <span>openness</span>. *I suppose it’s on the top of my list because that’s exactly what I am working on achieving as we redesign the power amplifier stage to have more of it.</p>
<p>Openness is obviously the opposite of closed in sounding, but what does that actually mean? *Let’s take an example of live music to help me explain what is meant by this.</p>
<p>If I am standing nearby a drum kit and there’s someone hitting the cymbal with the drum stick, the sound I am going to hear is rich with transient harmonics. *There’s the initial hit of the stick on the metal and that’s followed by a ringing from the cymbal that extends way into the room, bouncing off walls and seems to permeate the entire space I am in. *That’s what I would refer to as an open sound – a sound open to all that is around it and that sound flourishes within the space allotted to it.</p>
<p>A closed in sound would be the same example with the addition of a slight damper placed on the cymbal so it did not ring and produce as many overtones as much as its undamped counterpart.</p>
<p>In a stereo system this same cymbal, if recorded, sounds just like the real deal relative to all the other instruments recorded on the cut. *Depending on how good your loudspeakers and playback chain is, you’ll hear much of the ringing as you would live and believe it’s just fine. *This is the situation I found myself in with the amplifier – cymbals, stringed instruments sounded great and open – until I heard another amplifier that had better openness.</p>
<p>The harmonics of the instruments opened up as if they had been trapped in a sort of box. *Now, the comparison between the two amps was obvious and clear. *One was open and the other was closed in – as if a damper had been placed on those instruments that ring and have overtones.</p>
<p>That’s <span>openness</span> and getting more of it is my current challenge.</p>
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[Source: http://www.pstracks.com/pauls-posts/openness/11330/]
 
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