2. amps-preamps
  3. 1048483982

Here's why amps can be more important than speaker

I was looking at B&W's site:
You will notice that speaker total harmonic distortion figures tend to be worse than those of amplifiers and it is reasonable to ask why amplifier designers bother to get down to levels of say 0.01% or lower if the speaker is so much worse. The reason is that most of a speaker's distortion is restricted to the lower-order harmonics, whereas amplifiers can readily generate higher-order harmonics that are much more objectionable.

B&W FAQ
cdc
cdc OP
1,412 posts
 
LOL Marakanetz, stop it you're killing me!
Thanks everyone for the comments.
eldragon
707 posts
 
Cdc, i agree. Our speakers are much better than we are willing to believe.
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Paulwp, your dismissive comments reveal much more about the author than the system. No speaker on earth will reproduce a 50 hertz tone as 60 hertz. A 50 hertz tone will always be reproduced at 50 hertz with distortion components occuring at multiples of that tone, i.e. second harmonic distortion components will be found at 100HZ, but not 60HZ as you have so wrongly suggested. You know even less about physics than sound reproduction.
Marty
bluefin
111 posts
 
That's why some people like over-powered amp than under-powered your amp. The amp will be more in linear region if your power amp is capable of higher current and power than the speaker's demand. If under powered(you can call it bad match), even a good speaker can't perform. If having enough power or up, a good speaker is much better than bad ones.
paulwp
585 posts
 
No, the resulting output will be a combination of the fundamental plus the distortion components.
More to discover