Do distortion 's affect enjoyment of speaker?

the answer is an EMPHATIC 'yes'!
* distortions in the electronics ruins your listening pleasure thru the speakers..
* distortions in the speaker itself ruins your listening pleasure thru those speakers.
* distortions caused by the room ruins your listening pleasure thru the speakers.
* distortions caused by mechanical feedback of sound coupling back to your audio rack ruins your listening pleasure thru the speakers.
* distortions in the AC power in your wall outlet ruins your listening pleasure thru the speakers.

each of the above 5 items is a WHOLE lengthy chapter to improving playback sonics in the home environment that takes a long time to understand & a long time to master.

Which distortion(s) are your referring to??

I would add the following:

Imagine your amp to have a certain type of distortion. Perhaps it adds a graininess to the sound.

If you send it a signal that is also grainy-sounding, then the amp's graininess will not ADD to the graininess in the signal, but will MULTIPLY it. You are thus hearing DISTORTED DISTORTION, which is really bad.

This is why we recommend your best cables be placed at the source. There are far too many cables out there having a 'grungy' (dirty) sound that most of us would attribute to poor digital reproduction.

By using a cleaner/better cable at the beginning, everything downstream breathes more easily, since all are receiving less distortion to then re-distort.

I think that avoiding 'distortion multiplication' is part of the synergy reported for certain combinations of gear, speakers, and cables.

Best,
Roy

Thanks all. The "adjudicators" here modified my question; losing clarity. I just read that Rockport's new speakers have approx minus 60 db distortion--they claim is lowest in industry. B&W have advertised 1% distortion. I don't know how to interpret this; and how meaningful is the difference?

It's obvious that the better the distortion specs, the more
you will like listening to the speakers. That's the way
everyone does it. Saves you the trouble of listening and
making up your own mind. Same goes for amplifiers as well.
I suggest one of the old DB Systems amps with 0.0000001%
THD.

08-05-14: Chayro
It's obvious that the better the distortion specs, the more
you will like listening to the speakers. That's the way
everyone does it. Saves you the trouble of listening and
making up your own mind. Same goes for amplifiers as well.
I suggest one of the old DB Systems amps with 0.0000001%
THD.
Chayro

this must have been written with your tongue firmly in your cheek!! ;-)