Reference

LOW & MID TREBLE
Good: natural, neutral, smooth
Not Good:
    Excess: bright, brittle, etched, glare, glassy, hard, metallic, screechy, shrill, steely, strident
    Deficiency: dead, dull, muffled, muted

EXTREME TREBLE
Good: airy, extended, delicate, open
Not Good:
    Excess: hot, sizzly, spitty, tipped-up, tizzy, toppish, wiry, zippy
    Deficiency: closed-in, soft, sweet

Imaging
Good: bunching, correct width, phantom image, specificity, stability, tight
Not Good: bunching, hole-in-the-middle, phasey, vagueness, wander, wide central image

Noise
Good: No extraneous noise
Not Good:
Continuous:
Low-pitched:
Pure, lacking harmonics:
60Hz or 120Hz: hum
20 to 100Hz: acoustic feedback (turntable)
With spiky edges: buzz
Wideband:
Low-frequency: turntable rumble
Full-range:
"ff"-sound: pink noise, tape hiss, FM interstation hiss
"ss"-sound: white noise
High-frequency whistle: heterodyning, D/A idling noise
Random or Periodic:
200Hz to 1000Hz: acoustic feedback, howl, squawk
33 times/minute "ff"-sound: LP pressing imperfection, swish, whoosh
Impulse noises: crackles, pops, surface noise, ticks

Realism
Good: aliveness, ease, delicacy, involvement, musicality, naturalness, palpable, realism, transparency
Not Good: boring, colored, dead, distorted, lifeless, uninvolving

Soundstaging
WIDTH:
Good: beyond-the-speakers, floating, palpable, spacious
Not Good: narrow, pinched, restricted
CONTINUITY:
Good: center fill, coherent, stereo spread
Not Good: bunched, hole-in-the-middle
DEPTH:
Good: layering, perspective
Not Good: distant, flat, forward, laid-back, polite, recessed, Row-A, Row-M

Texture
Good: liquid, textureless, transparent
Not Good: dry, chalky, grainy, gritty, harsh, hashy, rough

Timbre
Good: accurate, natural, uncolored
Not Good: chesty, colored, hooty, horn sound, metallic, steely, thin, vowel coloration, wiry

Transient response
Good: articulation, attack, controlled, delicate, detailed, fast, quick, tight
Not Good: closed-in, dull, ringing, rounded, slow, sluggish, smeared