Do distortion 's affect enjoyment of speaker?

IMO the question is too vague to be answerable in a meaningful way, or in a way that will lead to consensus.

Regards,
-- Al

I'll second Viridian's response, and I'll add that distortion measurements will be considerably different for a given speaker depending on what volume level and input power level they are taken at. Not only on the levels at the instant the measurement is taken, but I would expect also on the history of those levels over the previous seconds or perhaps even minutes, since that history will affect voice-coil temperature at any given instant. Unless the THD numbers that are being compared for different speakers are based on levels that are indicated and that are similar, apples are being compared with oranges. And as Psag stated earlier, lack of standardization of how such measurements are taken is rampant.

Also, as Marty alluded to earlier, how objectionable a given THD value is depends on the frequency that is being distorted. It also depends greatly on how the TOTAL Harmonic Distortion is distributed among the individual harmonic frequencies.

As I've said in a number of past threads, IMO the main usefulness of specs and measurements is in identifying and **ruling out** candidates that would be poor matches with either other components in the system (especially the power amplifier, in the case of speakers), or with the listener's requirements (e.g., peak volume capability, physical characteristics, perhaps deep bass extension, etc.). But not in selecting among candidates which make that cut. And in most cases THD numbers are useless in both respects.

Regards,
-- Al

Great post by Bombaywalla, IMO. And as is nearly always the case, I agree completely with all of the technical points he makes. Including the basic point that having a first order crossover (or no crossover) is a prerequisite for time coherence.

For those who may be interested in reading further on the subject, and who haven't already seen it, the recent "Sloped Baffle" thread, and the links provided therein, are highly informative and will keep you busy for quite some time!

In seconding Bombaywalla's technical points, though, I should add that I take no position on the relative importance of time coherence among the great many tradeoffs that enter into the design of a speaker. On the one hand I consider that his breadth and depth of relevant experience and knowledge gives his opinions on that question considerably greater credibility than most. On the other hand, the fact that only a small minority of audiophile-oriented speakers have first-order crossovers, or no crossovers, and only some of those are truly time coherent, can reasonably be taken to signify that (as might be expected) there are multiple paths to success. And to failure as well.

Regards,
-- Al