[Joe Bloggs]

Well, looks like I'll be putting my money where my mouth is, and moving my main speaker system from my computer to the living room... with a new computer in tow. Will have to spend days replacing furniture and throwing out stuff but I'm determined

 

[Grave]

Everything that does exist does not exist and everything that does not exist does exist according to audiophiles. The result is nothing but low fidelity. It's just sad.

 

/rant

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Where were you just now that ticked you off so? I could use a laugh

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Have you mixed up your amp and headphone distortion figures by any chance? Sure, low distortion figures may be audible but it's not like the Alpha Dogs are doing much worse than, say, the Hifiman HE-5 or, say, the Beyerdynamic DT880 I'm listening to right now. Heck, the DT880 supposedly have 10% distortion in the bass but I'm not really hearing it even in pure sine tones... and bass is where distortion is supposedly most audible.

 

[davidsh]

Now, don't come tell me transducers sound the same

 

[mikeaj]

Have you mixed up your amp and headphone distortion figures by any chance? Sure, low distortion figures may be audible but it's not like the Alpha Dogs are doing much worse than, say, the Hifiman HE-5 or, say, the Beyerdynamic DT880 I'm listening to right now. Heck, the DT880 supposedly have 10% distortion in the bass but I'm not really hearing it even in pure sine tones... and bass is where distortion is supposedly most audible.

 
(emphasis added)

Who says that? I thought it was well known that bass distortion has to be a lot higher to be audible.

 

[SilverEars]

That's what I was thinking too.  I would think treble would be much more noticeable than bass especially under 100Hz.  You see high bass distortions on dynamics with 100Hz resonance all the time.  

 

[Grave]

THD is THD.
 
The mid range is in fact where distortion is the most audible.
 
Any distortion in the mid range exceeding 0.01% is in fact audible and this proves that transducers sound different.
 
Listen to the LCD-2's and you will hear what minimal distortion in the bass sounds like.

 

[bigshot]

You've misplaced a decimal point there. The threshold of audibility is 1%, not .01%.

 

[SilverEars]

 
The mid range is in fact where distortion is the most audible.
 

Can you explain why the midrange?  Why not treble?  I was thinking the lower treble region being the most audible.  5-10k

 

[bigshot]

Upper mids/low high... 1-4kHz.

 

[davidsh]

The mid range is in fact where distortion is the most audible.

Can you explain why the midrange?  Why not treble?  I was thinking the lower treble region being the most audible.  5-10k

Because our ears are tuned to be most sensitive around 1-3 kHz. That is the short answer.

 

[stv014]

Originally Posted by Grave /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Any distortion in the mid range exceeding 0.01% is in fact audible and this proves that transducers sound different.

 
It would be more accurate to say "some" distortion is audible, as I think it would not be too hard to create samples where 0.02% distortion is inaudible in blind testing.
 
The most audible difference between transducers is the frequency response, as even high end models are not close to be flat enough for audible transparency. But high distortion on loud bass is also common for dynamic headphones and speakers.

 

[stv014]

Because our ears are tuned to be most sensitive around 1-3 kHz. That is the short answer.

 
Although it is actually the frequency of the distortion products that matters here, rather than that of the fundamental. For example, 5th order harmonic distortion of a 600 Hz tone, or 2nd order IMD between 15 and 18 kHz tones would both produce distortion at 3 kHz.

 

[bigshot]

  It would be more accurate to say "some" distortion is audible, as I think it would not be too hard to create samples where 0.02% distortion is inaudible in blind testing.

 
.02% is below -70dB. I seriously doubt that any human being would ever be able to discern that under music. Ethan Winer in his Audio Myths seminar takes the absolute worst kind of noise and takes it down under music a little bit at a time. At the point the noise reaches -40dB or so... which is 1%... it starts to become impossible to hear.
 
If you are interested in finding out how the numbers being quoted actually relate to what your ears can hear, I recommend his two videos at youtube. He does several tests that are eye opening (and ear opening too!)
 
AES Audio Myths Seminar: http://youtu.be/BYTlN6wjcvQ
AES Damn Lies Seminar: http://youtu.be/Zvireu2SGZM