Do distortion 's affect enjoyment of speaker?

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!! ;-)

I am in a good position to offer an opinion as I started out with Infinity Reference series speakers which have a basic wood cabinet, and comparing those speakers to my current Magico S5's and other extremely inert speakers like Crystal Arabesque which I have experience with, my view is yes speaker distortion does negatively impact your enjoyment of music.

Firstly, cheaper wood cabinets can 'sing', in effect adding harmonics to the sound which distorts the original signal. In terms of driver distortion, ported designs like Wilson in my experience suffer from bass overhang which creates a bloated sound as the cone is unable to follow the signal as accurately as Magico's sealed design. This smears the upper frequencies which reduces the speaker's coherency and can lead to listener fatigue.

The Magico S5's for example use extremely rigid cabinets made from 1/2" thick aluminium extrusions. The S5's, like all Magico speakers also benefit from a sealed design as I mentioned which allows the bass drivers to operate in perfect piston motion and more accurately follow the signal. But of course there is no such thing as a free lunch, and the trade off is usually lower efficiency.

With Magico speakers (perhaps more than any other dynamic speaker i've heard) your ears need time to adjust due to the absolute lack of any perceptible distortion products, the accuracy of the drivers & exceptional resolution. You hear more of the information in the recording, including subtle background information and layering in the music which adds a whole new dimension to the music in terms of realism. A wordy response, but hope that helps.

Speakers can have many types of distortions, divergence from linear frequency response on-axis, divergence from linear freqency response off-axis, time based distortions, IM distortion, dynamic distortions such as compression, distortions of rise time and settling, and many more. If you think that focusing on very low harmonic distorion is the answer, by all means take that route.

I'll second Viridian's response, and I'll add that distortion measurements will be considerably different for a given speaker depending on what volume level and input power level they are taken at. Not only on the levels at the instant the measurement is taken, but I would expect also on the history of those levels over the previous seconds or perhaps even minutes, since that history will affect voice-coil temperature at any given instant. Unless the THD numbers that are being compared for different speakers are based on levels that are indicated and that are similar, apples are being compared with oranges. And as Psag stated earlier, lack of standardization of how such measurements are taken is rampant.

Also, as Marty alluded to earlier, how objectionable a given THD value is depends on the frequency that is being distorted. It also depends greatly on how the TOTAL Harmonic Distortion is distributed among the individual harmonic frequencies.

As I've said in a number of past threads, IMO the main usefulness of specs and measurements is in identifying and **ruling out** candidates that would be poor matches with either other components in the system (especially the power amplifier, in the case of speakers), or with the listener's requirements (e.g., peak volume capability, physical characteristics, perhaps deep bass extension, etc.). But not in selecting among candidates which make that cut. And in most cases THD numbers are useless in both respects.

Regards,
-- Al

Agree with Viridian and Al. Their views are more balanced. Too many variables in play.

I've often read that reviewers measure specs that are not relevant or important, and fail to measure specs that are. To a certain extent, at best, as Al said, specs may be useful to eliminate "bad choice" candidates, but not assure that a particular component will be a winner.

@Melbguy1 -- I've had my ears (pun) on the Magico S3s or S5s, for many of the reasons you just mentioned. And in time, I may wind up there. But right now, I'm obsessing over a type of distortion that many do not speak about or understand ... time coherence.

About 2 years ago, I've auditioned a pair of Vandies and IMO they did not do it for me. The response from some Vandy fans was that the dealer didn't know how to set them up. Or, the dealer used the wrong speaker cables. Or, my listening chair was in the wrong position. Or, the dealer used the wrong head vice. And so forth and so on.

Vandy buddies ... these explanations do not resonate (pun) with me.

Some time coherent speaker naysayers add that using 1st order x-overs requires the drivers to operate out of their "happy" zone. Or, the sloped baffles place a premium on proper placement and listening position. Or, the whole approach is at best a rough justice solution to a complicated problem.

So here is where I am holding. Rather than throw the baby out with the bath water ... I am holding onto my speakers for a while longer. I am going to test the time coherence waters with a DEQX device.

Trying to set up an in-home audition next week or the week after. For those not familiar with DEQX products, take a look at the DEQX website. I do not expect that the DEQX time coherence and room EQ solution will be a panacea.

Actually, I'm not sure what to expect.

But I'll report back.

Cheers,

BIF