[SilentNote]

Is the distortion in that video harmonic distortion?

Did you test in a way the video said you should not test?

Were your results sighted or blind?

Is there any reason to think that your calculations might not be valid?

1. No it's a noise file.

2. Not sure what the video said about how to do the test. I don't think it matters since I'm not trying to prove to anyone, it's just for my information. Basically I've come to the conclusion that I can only realistically hear harmonic distortion around ~-30dB maybe -40dB at best, so that corresponds to a distortion of about 1~10%. My ER4SR has less than 0.5% THD both sides so I don't think I'm gonna hear any distortion soon.

3. Like I said, it's sighted, then with closed eyes. I won't bother to set up an ABX / blind test when I already have the conclusion I was looking for myself.

4. What does it matter. All I need to know is if there's any chance I'm going to realistically hear ~1% harmonic distortion and the answer is no, even if I could it's not significant at that kind of volume where I have to:
1. know what I'm looking for
2. ignore the music and go searching for artifacts.
I don't listen to music that way. So it doesn't matter as long as the THD is not above ~1-2%.

 

[bigshot]

Would you believe me if I told you that I get absurd results with the video through YouTube even casually listening through an iPad speaker, extremely similar to what @silvernote was reporting? Do you think this might be due to the YouTube compression?

I think he "hears" that with his eyes, not his ears. He seems to think so too. He's just stating it in a way that makes it seem that he believes he actually hears it.

 

[BassicScience]

I am trying not to post anything in this thread because I am so non-expert. So I will only ask questions. A few things are puzzling me. Aside from the general idea that harmonic distortion is generally not audible on decent modern solid state amps, are we not leaving some unsettled or unverified matters on the table?

Is this a thread about harmonic distortion?

Doesn’t the cited video state that you should download the samples because YouTube will compress the files? Would you believe me if I told you that I get absurd results with the video through YouTube even casually listening through an iPad speaker, extremely similar to what @silvernote was reporting? Do you think this might be due to the YouTube compression? If so would you think that listening to the test on my iPad remotely achieves the intent of the test, as opposed to downloading the files and making a blind comparison?

Could someone please provide a reference for the idea that lower-order even harmonic distortion is less euphonic than higher order harmonic distortion? Doesn’t a lot of music use parallel octaves because of their pleasing effect? So why would 2nd order harmonic distortion (wouldn’t that be distortion one octave up?) not be euphonic?

What level of harmonic distortion is typical for a pair of headphones?

What level of harmonic distortion is typical for a pair of loudspeakers?

How does this compare to the amount of harmonic distortion being created by a competent modern solid state amp?

Can someone give me an example of a properly operating modern solid state speaker amplifier being used as intended and not clipping and not being audibly transparent over loudspeakers when listening to music?

Don’t tube amps sometimes introduce impedance anomalies so severe as to introduce audible changes in frequency response when driving a pair of loudspeakers that is not a good impedance match for that particular amp? Could this change in frequency response be mistaken for harmonic distortion in those circumstances?

I did not state that "lower-order even harmonic distortion is less euphonic than higher order harmonic distortion". What I said was that higher order harmonics are generally more audible than lower order ones, and that even harmonics are generally less euphonic than odd. I don't have a reference handy to back that up, but as they say, Google is your friend. Maybe there has been newer, better research since I studied this stuff almost forty years ago.

Just about any transducer (speaker or headphone) will introduce significantly more distortion than any modern amplifier. This can be from non-pistonic driver breakup, backwave reflection, enclosure resonance, and other factors. Generally these problems increase at higher volume. I doubt there is a typical value for headphone/speaker distortion given the myriad of different designs and materials in various models.

Tube amps tend to have higher output impedances than do solid state. This can exacerbate problems when driving speakers with low (or highly variable) impedances. The term "audibly transparent" is essentially meaningless.

 

[Steve999]

Edit: Wrong thread. . . .long as I’m here, I had always heard even harmonics in harmonic distortion were more euphonic than odd harmonics.

Anyone heard any different? I was being very tentative in trying to make my points because I am simply not the least bit expert in electronics or loudspeakers.

About even and odd harmonics in general, which is what I was thinking to myself (at least in part but maybe not fully fleshed out): https://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/Forums_General/acapella-50/270465-

 

[BassicScience]

Edit: Wrong thread. . . .long as I’m here, I had always heard even harmonics in harmonic distortion were more euphonic than odd harmonics.

Anyone heard any different? I was being very tentative in trying to make my points because I am simply not the least bit expert in electronics or loudspeakers.

About even and odd harmonics in general, which is what I was thinking to myself (at least in part but maybe not fully fleshed out): https://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/Forums_General/acapella-50/270465-

Yes, looks like I had remembered it backwards. It makes perfect sense that the even harmonics are more euphonic given that all the octaves are even. Thanks for the clarification!