(1973-05) SR mag - Audibility of Amplifier Distortion

[kfbkfb]

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archi...eo/70s/HiFi-Stereo-Review-1973-05.pdf#page=74^^^
...on the single-tone test, 0.1 per cent was not perceptible to anyone, but 0.2 per cent was immediately evident to everyone.


Kirk Bayne

 

[par4ken]

I think what that article illustrates is that it's more about the type of distortion rather than the amount of distortion that is audible. Crossover and hard clipping type distortion is much more audible than simple harmonic distortion which may go unnoticed at rather high levels.

Back then I remember being rather impressed by the numbers. Amplifier A is better than amplifier B because A has only 0.01% distortion while B is has 0.1%. And God forbid amplifier C has 1% and so must be a complete piece of crap! Distortion measurement is a useful tool but ears are the final judge.

 

[Soundfield]

I was always amused by the super low distortion fanatics who were unaware that they were feeding these precious perfect signals into hopelessly non-linear dynamic loudspeakers with THD levels many orders of magnitude greater!