THD Noticable?

[form109]

we Recently Replaced Our Surround Sound System....the New one is an Improvement Sound Wise,but it is Much Less Flexible than the old one...

the New one uses Molded Speaker Connections which means its almost impossible to replace the current speakers with Aftermarket ones...it also has Less Usable Imputs..1 RCA,1 3,5 MM,and 1 DMPORT...with a Passive sub...Ack.

the Old One Used Standard Speaker Connectors,a LFE Out,about 6 RCA and 1 Digital Imput,and had Individual Adjustments for all the Speakers...as Well as a Variety of Presets.

However the Old One seemed to have a Problem With Distortion....im not sure Excactly to Describe it....its Sort of Like a Raspy Resonance or buzzing..i Tried changing the Speakers and got the Same Net Result...

The System is Rated 0.7 THD...is that Bad?

ive noticed all Speaker Systems Rated around 0.7-0.9 Seem to Distort Annoying on Some Passages Of Sound....not All the Time...but its Noticable on Piano and Ringing or high Frequency Sound Effects.

anybody else notice this?

[Gordy]

It's a difficult call because the '0.7 THD' on its' own means almost nothing. It could be an accurate figure at a certain setting, or it could be just a figure used for their marketing purposes.

[form109]

Originally Posted by Gordy

It's a difficult call because the '0.7 THD' on its' own means almost nothing. It could be an accurate figure at a certain setting, or it could be just a figure used for their marketing purposes.

can you Measure THD with some sort of Meter?

[Gordy]

Originally Posted by form109

can you Measure THD with some sort of Meter?

Yes, distortion meters range from very expensive professional instruments down to PC sound card + free software. If you want to measure actual sound distortion (as opposed to voltage signal distortion) then it becomes more complex as you will need a microphone and possibly some form of preamplifier.

Example sites:
CLIOwin 7
CLIO
ARTA Home
audioTester
E-MU Systems - Established 1971 - Emulator X3, Proteus X2, PCI & USB Audio/MIDI Interfaces/MIDI Controllers

There is plenty of info out there in Google Land, also use the Search facilities on this forum to find threads on this subject.

G.

[planet10]

Single number THD is almost completely meaningless in terms of what things sound like. One needs to look at the spectra that the single number was created from to get any idea at all.

dave