When does speaker distortion become audible?


I recently got some seas excel speakers and when I fired them up for the first time I thought to myself "wow, there's no distortion".

I find this interesting because I never really thought I was hearing any distortion from my previous speakers but maybe I was, and just didn't pick up on it until now.

Interesting side note, I think my personal speaker taste is moving towards less analytical, super detailed sound to a more musical, tone based preference (I think I'm becoming less tone deaf, lol).
128x128b_limo
Kijanki,... I started reading the article. It's fascinating. It looks like it really speaks to a fallacy in cold reading bench test reports in general and those relating to speakers in particular. Namely, the bench tests may be testing stats that are not terribly important, and not testing stats that may be important. Ergo, why live auditioning is so important.
When does speaker distortion become audible?
My answer is simple. It's always audible.

Since it seems safe to assume that no speaker is audibly perfect, all speakers can be presumed to distort the signal that is provided to them to an audible degree. And most likely in multiple ways.

And, hypothetically speaking, even if there were a speaker that is audibly perfect in some rooms, it would undoubtedly not be perfect in many or most others.

Regards,
-- Al
Makes sense Al. Moreover, listening to a sonically perfect speaker might be figuratively like drinking triple distilled pure water. Pure H2O -- yes. Taste good, not really.
Hi BIF, what does it take in your mind to come up with nonsensical lines like this,
"Sustained listening at 100 db will rupture the organs in small animals and damage one's hearing."

And not put a smiley face after it:)

"If the first 100db suck, why continue?"
PHP143
YEs, since no system/speaker delivers a perfect reproduction, there is always distortion of various types.

It's the end result as a whole how that is delivered to and registers with the listener that really matters. If listening to music live sounds good but a recording at home does not, that is due to the distortions inherent in the reproduction.

Which ones matter most though and can be practically addressed, and how? That's the key. WHen it sounds "good enough", the distortions have been tamed sufficiently.

The trap is thinking that this can be achieved to satisfaction in all cases all the time via putting the right system in place. It can't. All recordings have distortions as well. Those producing the recordings play the same game as the listeners in terms of how to make things sound their best. Its all an art based on science, but not pure science. More like how to produce a Monet or Rockwell work of art through technology than a distortion free reproduction.

Amazing how well it all can work out in the end these days with modern technology! It'll never be perfect/distortion free though. The trend over time is positive though, in other words better technology = less distortion. So just learn to choose your distortions wisely! :^)