Sound is DARK / FORWARD / TRANSPARENT?

These terms are relative to ones experience. If you visit an audio shop or a friend’s house and hear their systems you will form an opinion of the sonic characteristics of that particular system and hopefully retain a sonic memory of that system. When you return home and listen to your system you will immediately notice the difference for better or worse of how your system sounds. One will most likely want to describe those differences between one system and another. I think is one way these types of terms come about. Musicians and audio engineers are very used to talking in these terms especially if you work in recording studios.

I notice a certain darkness and recessed sound quality with my speakers that is well documented by others. It is especially noticeable after returning from listening to another system. But when sitting at home listen to music these characteristics dont draw attention to themselves.

Sound and the way people hear it is a very individual thing just like the way people experience wine. Putting these sensuous stimuli into absolute terminology will always fall short. Wine descriptions crack me up.

For example when trying to describe sound the word "dark" can mean one thing to me in one context and in another context mean something totally different.