Answers | Q&A (Week of 10.14.24)

What is a 'Black Background?'

Question:

Q: In your reviews of speakers some of your reviewers refer to a black background. Black background doesn't come from speakers. Comes from the gear and the recording itself. I've had probably 20 different pairs of speakers and not one of them presented a background that wasn't black.

-John

Answer:

It is a potentially interesting point and common point of confusion. Let’s start by defining terms. By ‘black background’ we and others generally mean the myriad elements of noise and distortion that mask or blur the rendition of small signals (e.g. signals for the reflections in a concert venue or harmonics from an instrument). Often the masking elements are not heard literally as noise (e.g. audible hiss) or distortion but simply through the loss of detail, ambience and resolution. No good electronics should have directly audible noise. Recordings and vinyl might, but the black background term was not coined to refer to that, per se.

Now, since loudspeakers have many times the distort…