Harmonic Color, Harmonic Purity, Harmonic Vividness and Visual Color
I guess we should try and define some of these terms and then [I should] try even harder to stick to using them correctly.
*Harmonic Purity is analogous, in my mind to a tuning fork. A ‘ringing’ purity with all subharmonics intact and appropriately long decays. The opposite to harmonic purity is ‘blanched’ [i.e. washed out. Anyone else use a different term?]
*Color is how much subharmonics are present at all frequencies and SPLs and dynamics, especially in the smaller, more subtle notes. The opposite to having lots of color is Leanness.
*Harmonic Vividness is the cross product (multiplication) of Harmonic Purity and Color – when they are both present the music harmonics are very brightly colored – very real [or better than real since many live performances have lots of soft people around you absorbing various harmonics]. Harmonic Vividness is the real goal here with respect to harmonics.
*Harmonic Resolution is how many different harmonic tones are audible within a single major note. The lack of harmonic resolution [no term for this yet] is for example a middle ‘C’ note where all you can hear is the one frequency, growing loud then soft. With lots of harmonic resolution that same note has audible delineatable harmonics in the related octaves, as well as some harmonics at freq a little above and below [if this is a real world instrument] and all of which decay at different rates – and sometimes reinforcing and/or diminishing each other- lending a fullness and richness and character to the note.
From a recent deranged comment (of mine :-)):
“McIntosh can be said to have color, but it is low on harmonic purity and ‘vividness’. I do not see this as a particularity good thing. There is this Visual Color I see when I hear equipment. Valhalla is bluish silver. Jorma Prime is orangish brown [more like a burnished orange, actually]. McIntosh… is uneven, kind of like a faded-in-some-areas worn plaid pastel shirt. The Ongaku is…”
[as I continue to think about the mental colors I associate with things that I like the sound of…]
… like sunlight on a bar of gold [a lot of bright colors on a background that is slightly gold]. The AN DAC 5 Signature was as close to a pure rainbow (or prism, think Dark Side of the Moon album cover) as I have heard.
Sometimes colors are hard to pin down (for me, anyway). The Nordost Odin power cord is white. The Odin interconnect is slightly grayer than the Odin PC. The AN PALLAS is a smallish rainbow [actually, 100s of smallish prisms. and the Lamm ML3 is millions of smallish prisms]. The Lamm ML2.1 is purplish grayish white.
I do not see a mental color when I think of speakers, or rather I see the actual color of the speaker itself in my mind, which is *so* boring 🙂
Anyone else have colors they associate with equipment?
I find it interesting that you perceive sound as color. Synesthesia is a well documented phenomenon, but not particularly common. In some instances, I think that it is helpful in describing sound, for instance, I can see where you are coming from with respect to associating Valhalla with an appropriate blue. Likewise, I grok the rainbow effect associated with the AN DAC 5. I am somewhat at a loss with respect to the orange brown color that you associate with Jorma Prime. Is this a way of saying that you feel that tonally it is centered in the lower mids and upper bass with blues associated with higher frequency? Should we assume that the rainbow would represent the most neutral color? Anything which helps us to communicate what we are hearing is beneficial, but I guess that I would like more of a taxonomy with respect to the association between what you hear and the colors that you see.
Hi Fred,
It is not so much perceiving sound as color as associating a color with a ‘brand’ or ‘component’. I think this is not Synesthesia, as it has been so far documented, but more to do with the unconscious mental models being made conscious, and public.
I think one time here on this blog we associated cars with equipment. We can also sometime try and associate actors with equipment. I think this is all useful and perhaps, if we can find some kind of consensus – a way to communicate things about equipment and sound that is, as you say, beneficial. For example, what component is the Rodney Dangerfield of the high-end audio world? 😉 Or the Sophia Loren… Or the Capt. Kirk..?
🙂
As for colors associated with equipment, perhaps, given this so far very cursory self examination by just one person, me, bright white is the ultimate color for the ultimate component that has no sound and the rainbow for the ultimate musical component.
I do not know why I see Jorma Prime as burnished orange [orange on a background or deep gold]. I have thought about this many times over several years and still not sure – beyond the fact that the Prime has a rich colorful midrange – but this approach of looking at colors of other things, in order to understand the Jorma Prime color, is new for me. Maybe your interpretation is better, blue for highs and orange for low mids, I’ll have to think more about it.
Take care,
-Mike
I’d like to join in on this string but must confess I am NOT currently on a music induced DRUG HIGH and, sadly, am seeing no colors. Perhaps if I had an Ongaku sitting here between the Edge Pyramids I would be transported into that world of high harmonic vividness or resolution, discovering whether I am to have a future in Solid State or Tube or (dare I say it) both. But before conveying my response in expository prose, I want to pin down the definitions a bit and make some comments. But first a couple questions/request [And as I note I’ve entred the following words in two places]:
Mike: In Small Tubes and Druglike Sound !!(22NOV10) you referencethe above (5FEB10)string on Harmonic Purity, Color, and Harmonic Resolution concluding as follows:
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// HARMONIC RESOLUTION (detail) FIRST PASS at this list – there WILL BE CHANGES
OK. So what do you think?
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It appears you have left out the actual Harmonic Resolution List. Could you add the list, or is it merely to be inferred by the reader from the two preceding lists of Purity and Color? I’m curious to see the list, especially since it seems relevant to the 22NOV10 discussion of Definitions, namely Harmonic Purity, Color, and Vividness. And by ‘Harmonic Vividness” do you mean the same as “Harmonic Resolution” in the 5FEB10 blog entry? And if Vividness and Resolution are not synonymous, please diferentiate. The context for this clarification request is my current assessment of the Edge NR Amp, particularly as it relates to a live Beethoven Concert (Choral Fantasy, Pacific Symphony/Irvine CA/CARL ST.CLAIR – conductor/Jeffrey Biegel – pianoNov 19, 2010) and the best recording of this piece (TELARC CD-80063 Boston Sym Orch/Ozawa/Rudolf Serkin piano Oct 4, 1962). I’d like to comment on the Harmonics of the live performance vs the recording, and specifically as they relate to the reproducton of the Steinway & Sons 10’ Concert Grand used in both performances.
More to come.
Jim,
I think that it would be helpful to know the remainder of your system. This would allow the reader to place your remarks in context. I think that the weakest link in the chain syndrome probably applies. The Edge amps may not be the limiting factor. I heard them at Mike and Neli’s on the Triolons with quite good results. The listening session was quite informative as we varied one component at a time, enfing up with all Audio Note SOTA electronics driving the Triolons. In many ways the Edge pyramids did not sound like a transistor amp at all. While they were not the Kegons, they were nice in their own right.
Fred
Thanks, Fred!
Hi Jim,
I added a definition of Harmonic Resolution to this post at the top of the page. Hope it agrees with everybody’s experiences and evokes memories of systems with lots of HR and those with less HR. In our experience to date, most of the problems in low HR systems are found in the amps, sources and cables [i.e. not so much the speakers, given decent speakers to start with]. The vast majority of systems have low harmonic resolution but I do NOT think that high HR is necessarily REQUIRED for druglike systems. It does however lend realism and another layer of enjoyable complexity which can make a system more druglike.
If I did not list the HR of amps in that post, I must have run out of steam, or perhaps it is a copy and paste error on my part. I’ll look at it more when I get a chance [we are supposed to be heading down to Kevin’s any minute now].
Take care, guys,
-Mike