New video on THD+N

[Sawdust123]

I was explaining to someone recently why THD+N was not a number that can really tell you how a device sounds. I then realized that I have this same discussion many times a year, often at audiophile shows. I decided that I would just put a presentation together that explains this in fairly simple terms. YouTube

Yes, there is a small commercial aspect to this presentation but I hope I have kept this to an acceptable minimum. If you want the full commercial for AverLAB, I have made that video too. YouTube

 

[lholland]

Nicely done - accurate and well illustrated. One of the best intro's I've seen on the topic. I was the 91st viewer and that's ridiculous, should be way higher. There's so much bogus stuff on YouTube and this was a breath of fresh air.

I hope you guys do really well, you have a great product at a great price in an ignored niche.

Avermetrics | Test And Measurement

 

[phofman]

Thanks, very educational.

 

[Bix]

Thanks, very helpful. I have FFT on my scope but was unsure of the results I was seeing.

 

[FauxFrench]

I appreciate the explanatory video very much.

 

[DontHertzMe]

This should be a sticky

 

[Sawdust123]

Thanks for the kind words! Are there other topics you would like to see covered in short videos like this?

 

[00940]

It's a great intro to harmonic/non harmonic distortion. It clearly shows the effect of huge amount of distortion and how different the sound becomes with different harmonics thrown in.

But for the sake of completeness, it might be worth mentioning that the amount of distortion used in that video are extreme. In real life, with modern and competent audio devices (speakers excluded), those harmonics can easily be 100db down. At that point, with enough 0 in, the thd+n number is not so meaningless anymore (especially if plotted against frequency/power) and the spectrum becomes pretty much irrelevant.

 

[Sawdust123]

Point taken. I had to use extreme levels of distortion in order for the presentation to work on typical computer speakers.

One of my frustrations selling audio test equipment is dealing with the expectation some have that an audio analyzer can tell one how something sounds. They don't. I have never seen one produce a graph with any of these adjectives on one of the axes; bright, tubby, silky, airy, smooth, palpable, harsh, shrill, etc. The analyzer is only a tool to help you determine why a device sounds the way it does. Of course, it is also great at telling you that two devices have been identically constructed (i.e. production test).

 

[Aridace]

Great piece of equipment (in line distortion measurement on the designer's bench, yum) , nice video with good example: even the "not officially conducting" limiter diodes used to force controlled, symmetrical clipping in power amps produce distortion.