Sound
Tonality
Also called tonal balance, tuning
Tonality is the overall balance between bass, mids and treble: whether a product sounds warm, bright, neutral or scooped. It is the first thing most people notice and the main thing a frequency response measurement describes.
Tonality is the shape of a product’s Frequency response as you hear it. Words such as Warm, Bright, Neutral and V-shaped all describe tonality, and a product can be tonally pleasant without being especially detailed.
For headphones, tonality is compared against targets such as the Harman target or Diffuse-field curve. For speakers, the room changes the result, so the same pair can sound warm in one house and lean in another.
A quick test is a familiar voice. If it sounds like the person, the tonality is close to right for you; if it sounds thin, nasal or boxy, something in the mids is off.
Where you’ll see this on tonistry.
- Owners rate tonality on a Warm ↔ Bright scale in their reviews; a higher position isn't automatically better. See community reviews and how ratings are read.