Bob Dylan?
Distortions that the human ear likes. Are there any ?
This is based on a post from another thread, where someone speaking to a studio mastering engineer, repeated a quote by this engineer, stating " most audiophiles like certain distortions ", and it quickly started a debate. I did not want to continue this on the other thread, as it had little to do with the OP's direction on his thread. What say you, Geoff, George, Almarq, Ralph, anybody......if this thread goes nowhere, I can always have it removed. Enjoy ! MrD.
Showing 14 responses by geoffkait
ivan_nosnibor Well, I don’t think it could Rilly be better. If it were, then the more tape copies you make from the original tape, then the better the result should sound, yes?? >>>>I’m not saying yes but I’m definitely not saying no. But that’s getting ahead of the question. I’m only asking about one copy. I’m not considering other variables just copying. |
cleeds But there are those who enjoy euphonic distortion. For example, one thread here got in to quite a bust-up when a user insisted his LP dubs to R-2-R were more accurate than the original LPs. He just couldn’t accept that he preferred the tape dubs because of the addition of small amounts of euphonic distortion. (After all, a dub of an LP can’t contain information not on the original disc. It can only add distortion, however slight it may be.) >>>>Oh, I don’t know, why can’t a copy of an LP be better than the original or contain more information? It certainly seems to be true that a copy of a CD can be better than the original and contain more information. Or perhaps a copy of an LP to cassette. I suspect things are quite a bit more complicated than we realize sometimes. Actually I think the term euphonic distortion probably originated with naysayers attempting to claim such and such a thing couldn’t possibly work. I also just explained why euphonic distortion would be buried in a sea of bad distortions, anyway, so even if there was such a thing as euphonic distortion you wouldn’t be able to hear it. The good distortion would be buried in the noise/distortion. You don’t think you’re listening to undistorted sound when you listen to music, do you? |
OK, here’s the problem with believing anyone who claims audiophiles prefer or like certain types of distortion. Let’s suppose there is a desirable type distortion, or one that some people like, whatever it might be, and I’m not saying there isn’t such a thing or anything like that. The problem is even if there was a “good distortion” it would be drowned in a sea of “bad distortions.” You would be unable to hear the good distortion, it would be much less than the sum of all the bad types of distortion. Hel-loo. So, I’m saying it’s a logical fallacy. This doesn’t even address noise, which is a different animal than distortion but similar, that also reduces SNR and DR. Signal to (noise + distortion) ratio. As Shannon Dickson opined in one of his articles in Stereophile back in the late 90s, audiophiles at CES can’t seem to get themselves up out of the noise floor. Take it from me, things haven’t changed much since then. But since audiophiles are generally an adaptable bunch they learn to live with the distortion. The many sources “bad distortion” coming up next, unless somebody beats me to it. |
This just in! “The higher harmonics, above the 7th, give the tone "edge" or "bite." The basic cause of the difference in tube and transistor sound is the weighting of harmonic distortion in the amplifier’s overload region (the italics are mine). Transistor amplifiers exhibit a strong component of 3rd harmonic distortion when driven into overload.” Since there are so many sources of distortion one has a very tough road to hoe to try attribute any distortion he hears to the particular source or sources. Some things are easier than others, for example mechanical feedback and clipping. |
It’s not the harmonics. It’s the harmonic distortion. Harmonic distortion is a technical term. Specifically, The total harmonic distortion (THD) is a measurement of the harmonic distortion present in a signal and is defined as the ratio of the sum of the powers of all harmonic components to the power of the fundamental frequency. Distortion factor, a closely related term, is sometimes used as a synonym. Guess what, they already found out a long time ago THD is not well correlated to what audiophiles perceive as good sound. In fact, Amplifier A can sound decidedly worse than Amplifier B even when Amplifier A has a THD 💯 Times better than Amplifier A.Next up, list as many sources of distortion as you can. |