More "air" or "blackness" around the notes

OK, this is either audiophool speakery, or I am deaf. I have been working out at https://www.soundgym.co/welcome/index trying to get my ears tuned to audiophile standards, but I still have no concept of what this really means. I hear that my Yggdrasil A2 has a "grey" background, but it seems dead quiet to me between sounds. How will I know if I hear a "blacker" one? Why do I need a "blacker" one? Some clown on the forum we most like to poke fun of said he put a $3,900 8 gauge power cord on a $3,200 8 watt DAC and got "a blacker background and more air around the notes". Now I can clearly smell his ass in those comments, but is the truth in the middle somewhere?

 

I can def. hear the blackness between DACs but not sure about the technical explanation.

 

Well, I"m all ears if anyone can 'splain it.

 

Of course you have to be able to go between contrasting gear to hear these things, so you’d have to hear a “blacker” DAC than the Yggdrasil to know what they’re talking about (or a greyer DAC I suppose). Yggdrasil A2 is actually pretty black in background IMO, but not the ultimate.

Think of it like a TV screen with lit objects on a black background - with the really good TVs, there is no bleed into the blackness, and objects seem to pop more and almost seem 3D against their background. On Lesser TVs, the black around the objects goes kind of grey and is sometimes noisy/grainy and the objects just seem flatter in comparison.

To bring it back to sound, with a grey background there just seems to be a slightly haze around notes thats constantly running in the background, vs on blacker backgrounds the instruments stand out more and seem cleaner and more seperated and like they’re being played in a quieter space. It’s also easier to notice more microdetails because they’re not obfuscated by the slight haze. Not that you can’t necessarily hear these details with the greyer gear if you try, but you may not notice them as easily and without effort.

The “air” around notes (the reverberations of the instrument, movement of people or objects, or the reflections from the space they’re recorded in) CAN become easier to discern with a blacker DAC, BUT this is assuming the DAC has the resolution to reproduce these sounds in the first place. Lots of DS DACs with black backgrounds can’t touch Yggdrasil in some of the spatial details it can resolve. This comes down to the reconstruction filter. The “greyness” is likely related more to the analog output stage (hence the analog 2 version of Yggdrasil has a blacker background).

Blacker background gives you more contrast and color and at the same time, sounds less noisy and cleaner. More pure.

 

Those are two difference qualities. More air means more space between different sounds, things are more further apart from each other. Some folks use the word 'more air' to talk about treble extension past 10khz or the resolution level (^rlow), so context is everything.

Blackness is just like what rlow said but I also believe it's not only the sound borders that can get "grey" but also the whole space between sounds, the empty areas within the soundstage.

Of coarse it also depends on the tracks you listen to, if it's not originally there you will not get it.

 

"Air" is certainly not audiophoolery. It is the high-frequency stuff that particularly enhances the feeling of being there.

@rlow gives a very reasonable explanation of "blackness." But this one is much more open to audiophool abuse and pretensions to hear differences in noise floor when neither could possibly be audible. Can be real but treat with caution!

It just occurs to me... a system on which you can't hear air might appear to be blacker. Duh...

 

This is totally true. A “darker” piece of gear, may just be something that is more rolled off or muted on the top end of the frequency response, reducing the feeling of “air” on cymbals and the like. There’s airy FR (aka tipped up treble of certain high frequency range) and then there is “air around instruments and vocalists” which affects the entire frequency range, which is more what I was speaking to - thats more about resolution and low noise floor (blackness).

 

I'm at least learning what to look for, even if I can't reliably detect it yet. Even though I have often used fluid flow analogies to explain current flow to clueless people, the analogies of audio to video don't work for me. I have a setup now where I can A-B DACS. Both can be simultaneously fed from the same source, gain-matched, and then as separate inputs into a passive pre. I've got more to learn but I appreciate the clarifications. I was stuck at the starting gate. I still smell ass on a lot of the things that people hear "dramatic improvement" from, like oversized power cables, but at least I am beginning to understand the terms used to describe the changes. Seems stupid for me to be at this point in my understanding after 55 years in the hobby and having musical training. But here I is.

 

Play this on several audio-systems. When you cannot stop moving because the minimal groove is too good, you must have found that right audio-systems and never look back. Funk is powerful...



P.S. James Brown & The J.B.'s had one of the best sound guys by some unexpected luck in their time. They would usually just jam and record in one take.

 

I don't talk much about "blackness" as It seems we each have a slightly different understanding... however my take on blackness has to do with not so much the "noise floor" but it's impact on how long you can follow a reverb trail or literally how quite can you hear sounds as they fade into silence

With something "blacker" you can follow the reverb trail or decay longer and to quieter levels before it becomes indiscernible from noise or "silence". With gear that's more "grey" the sound cuts off quicker or becomes indiscernible from noise [or silent] at a louder level.

Tho you need music that's record to such a standard where you can follow that quality, the decay or fade into silence or "reverb trail" or "tail end" of sound, because if it wasn't captured well enough in the recording your not going to hear it on playback

 

I have found that well recorded music played on a mid-level system beats poorly recorded music played on a TOTL system which displays all of its faults like a fat man's ass peeking out of a surgical drape.

 

to me one of the most obvious upgrade when i go from the hd650-hd800 to the utopia. is the realness of the decay of sound, as if you really hear the room in which the instruments was played and the silence between the notes and the way the notes decay.
maybe its also related to the electronics, but I think your mostly likely to be limited to hear that "air" due to your transducers

this exactly

 

I know what you mean, but I hadn't thought of calling that blackness. Maybe a mental blank, but I don't know what I do call it!

I read an article once saying that separation of instruments can be caused by dips in the frequency response, and can also be mastered in by leaving gaps in the frequencies either side of an instrument's range. Maybe I remember right or not: not sure. Anybody?

 

Never heard a Yggdrasil before, but I relate air and blackness to what you hear on a Modi Multibit when you switch from USB to a decent SPDIF. Seems more focused and natural to me in SPDIF. I’d say it is blacker and cleaner and just sharper.

 

Completely agree on this. Those single takes all together can be magical.