AK Lingo

[ozmoid]

OK, what do all those cryptic acronyms MEAN, anyways?

BPC
Black Plastic Crap. Usually refers to 1980's (and later) era receivers; light on weight, performance, and looks. Not all BPC is Black, and not all Black receivers are BPC. The Yamaha A-1 is an example of a heavy, fabulous sounding piece of gear that happens to be black in color.

WAF (or W.A.F.)
Wife Approval Factor. :smoke: Play your cards right, get her hooked on good sounding gear, and this will never be an issue. Or, you could refuse to replace your grill cloth with something that matches the living room curtains, and be up against this for the rest of your life. Usually comes into play when your gear collection begins to exceed your storage space, or when you want to put something that's ugly, but sounds great, in a main room of your house.

VTF
Vertical Tracking Force. Refers to the "downforce", in grams, of your stylus resting in the groove of a vinyl LP.

SRA
Stylus Rake Angle. The angle at which your stylus rests in the groove. Not all turntables can adjust for this.

TOTL, MOTL, or BOTL
Top Of The Line, Middle Of The Line, or Bottom Of The Line. Refers to where your particular model of *whatever* fell in the manufacturer's line-up that year.

VC
Voice Coil. A wire coil inside a speaker that is electrified by your amps' signal to create the magnetic field that moves the cone in and out, making sound waves. If this is broken, your speaker will not work... and you will be learning lots and lots of new things (as well as new words) when you try to replace it.
____________________
Anybody else got one (or more) to add? Try to keep them specific to AK! What have you learned since you've been here?



:nerd:

[Wigwam Jones]

GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Stolen from Rangefinderforum.com, a camera discussion forum.

[Sir.Byrd]

POS : Peice of Sh*t :D

describes most of what is at my local Goodwill

[Alaric]

OMFG

The laryngeal reaction to the $12 thrift store Sansui AU11000a.

[fotno]

AFAIK = As far as I know
IIRC = If I recall correctly

Both of these are nice if you're not 100% sure of your info... Which pretty much describes everything I post.

[Snade]

AKL

AK Lingo

[Wigwam Jones]

WPC - watts per channel.

[vinyldavid]

SWMBO=She Who Must Be Obeyed :tears:

PAF (or) P.A.F.=Parental Acceptance Factor

IMO=In My Opinion

IMHO-In My Humble Opinion

[70salesguy]

BITD

Back in the day - A term occasionally used by us older folks to refer to "the old days".

[Alaric]

BTW
By the way

YMMV
Your Mileage May Vary-a variation of IMO.

WTAK
Welcome To AK!

[Arkay]

It's not an acronym, but there is something that has its place in any presentation of AK vernacular/jargon. Known only to the long-term AK cognoscenti, too esoteric and arcane to be directly defined in an open thread today, nevertheless one feels compelled to give a quiet mention to... racooning woogers ! :banana:

Like the secret handshake that must be earned, if you dig deeply enough into the archives and so prove yourself deserving, all will be revealed and you, too, will know what it truly means to racoon a wooger!

:D

[Mystic]

Sure there's a "laughter" smilie, but many of us still insist on using LOL (caps optional). On the other hand... (oops, better make that OTOH)

[Sansui Louie]

RAW - Racoon A Wooger. There. :D

VTA - Vertical tracking angle, commonly meaning whether or not your tonearm is running uphill, downhill or level, but technically referring to the vertical angle at which the stylus meets the groove.

SPL - Sound pressure level, or measure of a speaker's sensitivity. Some speakers are 'louder' than others, or require less power to reach the same volume. Measured in decibels one foot from the speaker with a one watt input.

[BudK]

Nwtrs .= now where's that rolla solder ...:D

[gladiator335]

WTF!? - used mostly when someone on eBay puts BPC receiver with $2000 reserve price.

[cableguy]

:banana::drool::naughty::ntwrthy::beer::worthless

[budgetaudio6]

swmbo=she Who Must Be Obeyed :tears:

paf (or) p.a.f.=parental Acceptance Factor

imo=in My Opinion

imho-in My Humble Opinion

Imnsho----in My Not So Humble Opinion!

Cant Forget That.:)

[KingBubba]

Truly an AK thing though not an acronym; "Unobtanium", meaning a part that is no longer obtainable.

[thisOne]

IBTL - In Before the Lock - when the thread is clearly going into the toilet and you want to put your post in :banana:

DNFTT - Do Not Feed The Trolls - I made it up, but WTF!!!!, why not:D

PW - Post Whore (self explanatory)

[budgetaudio6]

thisone is toofunny:D

[outlawmws]

RCM rcord cleaning machine

A "Bolly" a good deal on a piece of gear

[Snade]

ATT = addicted to tubes

VSR = vintage sherwood rocks

TMW = too much wine

[ozmoid]

So Snade, I take it the latter affected the former? :D

Todd.

[Rock6x]

Great thread Oz!

I am still trying to learn all the "vernacular" so it is both funny and helpful at the same time.

Still a noob (btw, NOOB, or NEWB - new member on any forum) but I'd like to take a stab at "racooning a wooger". Feel free to LOL if it's totally wrong, but is it when you refoam the surrounds around a woofer?

[lguise]

but is it when you refoam the surrounds around a woofer?

wouldn't that be a RFJ? (refoam job)

[RayW]

SPL - Sound pressure level, or measure of a speaker's sensitivity. Some speakers are 'louder' than others, or require less power to reach the same volume. Measured in decibels one foot from the speaker with a one watt input.

Actually SPL is just a measure of the sound pressure referenced to 20uPa (micro Pascals) and expressed in dB. It is used sometimes for speaker sensitivity but it's much more general than that. It's just a measure of how loud a sound is. And I'm sure you knew this and just mistyped, Louie, but speaker sensitivity is usually give at 1 meter.

More speaker terms:
XO - crossover
HPF - high pass filter
LPF - low pass filter
OB - open baffle
PR - passive radiator

And as intuitive as it seems to someone who knows, recap means to replace the capacitors in a piece of gear.

Ray

[outlawmws]

wouldn't that be a RFJ? (refoam job)


Nope! around here, it's racoonin the wooger! :thmbsp:

[dokblues]

And the ever popular:
SOL :When you just missed that piece of gear. S...T out of luck.

[kenhappen2u]

ntfw = No tele- funken way

[Andyman]

Not AK specific, but I see/use them quite a bit

SWMBO: She Who Must Be Obeyed ( I used to think this one came from the Personals columns...:D)

PITA: Pain In The A**

[sauuuuuce]

Nope! around here, it's racoonin the wooger! :thmbsp:
You just let us all in on the secret handshake.:nono::D

Although googling variations of racoonin and woogers does seem to always point to AK posts. we would have figured it anyway.

[Drybasement]

I hate acronyms. Spend 6 years in the military and you'll know why.

Cheers :mad:

[avionic]

I hate acronyms. Spend 6 years in the military and you'll know why.

Cheers :mad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhZ2wIWWvnU

:lmao:

[avionic]

FUBAR - fouled up beyond all repair (fouled is the PG version)
SH - sierra hotel - shiite hot

[ekmanning5]

ntfw = No tele- funken way

:thmbsp:

[pioneernut]

IMNSHO - In My Not So Humble Opinion <- saw that one the other day and had to think twice about it.

[Ausjoe]

IMHO and YMMV both have a further meaning. "I think I'm right but I better cover my ass".

[ozmoid]

"Raccooning a wooger" is technically re-coning, not re-foaming.

There's a bit of history to both typos, and their joining. :)

[Arkay]

IMNSHO - In My Not So Humble Opinion <- saw that one the other day and had to think twice about it.

I often think of IMHO as "in my honest opinion", instead of "in my humble opinion". That causes trouble when the "not" is added: In my not-so-honest opinion :yikes:? Have to be sure to remember it's "humble"!

"Raccooning a wooger" is technically re-coning, not re-foaming.

Aw, but --history aside-- foaming sounds sexier. It reminds one of that Herb Alpert Whipped Cream cover... and now you REALLY gave away the secret handshake!
:D

[lguise]

OMG, HTF is a poor AKS like me supposed to keep up with ATS. It's enough to DMFC. AI it weren't enough to keep up with all the hifi vocabulary words, now I have to memorize ATBS. HFS!

[Rock6x]

Aw, but --history aside-- foaming sounds sexier. It reminds one of that Herb Alpert Whipped Cream cover... and now you REALLY gave away the secret handshake!
:D

So WTF?? I didn't win anything??!!??? :wtf:

[yamahammer]

CYA ,CMA, cover you a** , cover my a** BMA bite my a** and the ever present ass/u/me oh no i'm sounding lik a rump ranger

[Drybasement]

FUBAR - fouled up beyond repair (fouled is the PG version

F***ed up beyond all repair.

Fixed that for you.

[avionic]

F***ed up beyond all repair.

Fixed that for you.
Thanks...I was just trying to keep it clean...:D

[kcollins4]

Usually found in the Dollars and Sense forum...

SA. No, not San Antonio. Salvation Army.
GW. No, not George Washington, nor anyone named Bush. Goodwill.
CL. No, not the symbol for chlorine. Craigslist.

Another acronym who's popularity seems to be on the rise here at AK...OP, or Original Poster. The OP of this thread is Ozmoid.:tresbon:

[toxcrusadr]

OTL: Output TransformerLess - refers to a tube amp with low output impedance tubes that has no output transformer.

There is a term referring to some kind of speaker enclosure type that I can't put my finger on, and I've always wondered what the definition is. Some kind of folded horn loaded with a woofer, I believe. Driving me nuts, now I can't even think of the word I don't know the definition of. Help!

[RayW]

There is a term referring to some kind of speaker enclosure type that I can't put my finger on, and I've always wondered what the definition is. Some kind of folded horn loaded with a woofer, I believe. Driving me nuts, now I can't even think of the word I don't know the definition of. Help!

Is it an acronym like BLH (Back Loaded Horn) or TQWT (Tapered Quarter Wave Tube - a transmission line variant)? Or is it just a name that doesn't make sense?

Ray

[caddisgeek]

TWA


Three Word Acronym

[ozmoid]

Is it an acronym like BLH (Back Loaded Horn) or TQWT (Tapered Quarter Wave Tube - a transmission line variant)? Or is it just a name that doesn't make sense?

Ray

And another... MTM: Mid-tweeter-mid, referring to that driver arrangement on the baffle. (I just had that explained to me at the last Fest. Always learning...)

And BTW, the MTM speakers I heard were also a TL: Transmission Line (an enclosure design) made by RayW. :music:

[RayW]

And another... MTM: Mid-tweeter-mid, referring to that driver arrangement on the baffle.

A nit to add to that one, it is also known as a D'Appolito arrangement named for Joe D'Appolito who took the design mainstream by working out a crossover that fixed problems that had previously plagued the design.

And BTW, the MTM speakers I heard were also a TL: Transmission Line (an enclosure design) made by RayW. :music:

Constantly striving to work as many acronyms as I can into my designs.

Ray

[jeffe]

Here's what I've got....:D

AOCD

audio obsessive compulsive disorder!

[avionic]

SWAG-------Scientific Wild Ass guess
SET Single ended triode
PLL phase locked loop
AGC automatic gain control

[tentoze]

BDMF- Brain Dead...

[taylor611]

Don't know if I can use the anagram in this forum but "Special High Intensity Training" is what it means. I need as much as I can get.
I don't get much of this from the wife unless it's too loud

[tshoejohn]

I’m just a NEWB, but AFAIK you have GAS if SWMBO is a PITA over the POS you picked up at GW?

[StevieDude]

I am always OTLO for NOST! :D

[beans]

DX-ing - I know it has to do with tuning, but I'd like the full definition of DX and the origin, please.:o

[Hyperion]

In every Radio Amateur's glossary, means a distant contact whether listening or transmitting or both. Local radio stations (commercial or amateur) are usually very strong and are no challenge to find. Distant stations may be weak or very weak in signal strength - much more of a challenge to pull-in. On this forum we talk about the abilities of a tuner, low distortion, good frequency response, sensitivity, selectivity - you will want the last two for DX-ing - the more the better. Often amateurs will use the scale 0-5 for signal readability and 0-9 for signal strength, a 5 by 9 DX contact is a very sought after thing - sounding just like a local station :tresbon: but very far away :yes:

Clear ? :D

And some acronyms

RTFM - Read The Freaking Manual - and a common usage "When all else fails RTFM" !
IMVVHO - In My Very Very Humble Opinion - laying it on with a trowel :rolleyes:

Don't get me started on BJT, JFET, VFET, MOSFET et al

John

[Aage]

Did I miss TT (turntable) or RTR (reel to reel)?

[SA-708]

It once took me a day to realize that Sally Ann = Salvation Army, in reference to a thrift store find.

[electronjohn]

GS=garage sale
deOxit=AK Windex
IHF=Institute of High Fidelity, A.K.A. 200WPC Yorx