Non Distortion?

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I'm not sure which category this question should be placed in so I just picked this one.

If an amplifier or speaker driver leaves out part of the spectrum of sound that defines the timbre of an instrument, what would you call that kind of "distortion"?

...and what would you hear, assuming it was audible? Would it sound like a different kind of instrument? Or is this too vague of a question?
 
There's no name for that kind of distortion.

That kind of distortion doesn't occur in any audio system intended to reproduce recordings.

What you're talking about amounts to filtration. If you progressively take away the harmonics that characterize a musical tone, you will end up with the fundamental (root frequency) sine wave. This has a pure uncoloured (boring) quality. There's no way to achieve this effect at present, certainly not affecting a range of pitches on a selective basis.

There are other features that distinguish sounds produced by instruments, amongst these are attack (how the note starts up), decay (how the note tails off) and envelope (which might involve vibrato).

What the result would be like to listen to if you could remove the harmonics that distinguish between say, a trumpet and an accordion, you'll have to imagine. The kind of colourless rendition that early telephone ringtones achieved might approach it in some respects.

w
 
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i will agree with wakibaki but also add a small parameter ....ring tones normally come up with psychological issue meaning that most ring tones are always a "hit " that is something that you allready know or listen too before so you listen to it you know it you are amazed of the crystal and crispy treble that can be reproduced or emphasized by the sophisticated telephon speaker and as about the missing things such is size headroom stage and bass you may as well imagine ...or complete the miising info from a file or folder in your brain that exists there from the last time you ve listened to the hit ...

now in real conditions the problem is that beyond amplifier with problems there is no perfect speakers ... imagine what will happen if you are trying toi listen to techno music with electrostatic speakers at full power .... or imagine how would be to listen classical music from PA system that is used in a disco or a hard rock club ....it doesnt work


odften designers have to do small tricks to soolve problems ...one will be how you will not blow a tweeter ...solution is so simple cross it higher and it will last longer ...ok then but the mid range or woofer that is down under simply cannot follow that high result there is a gap between 1-2 way or 2-3 way that can become very handy if you are listening to allready high mid emphasized music ... like hard rock and actually equalize the all performance of the speaker ....

switch this to classical music and you have a mufled speaker or with poor midle ...

now .... check the bits and parts of your system ...think ... compare ...figure it out ...

regards sakis
 
now in real conditions the problem is that beyond amplifier with problems there is no perfect speakers ... imagine what will happen if you are trying toi listen to techno music with electrostatic speakers at full power .... or imagine how would be to listen classical music from PA system that is used in a disco or a hard rock club ....it doesnt work

Can't agree totally . Some electrostatic systems are sub equipped ;some theaters use DSP and quality PA speakers to correct bad acoustics :spin:
 
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