[HN Gopher] Audio Distortion and THD Explained
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       Audio Distortion and THD Explained
        
       Author : bryanrasmussen
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2021-11-28 07:49 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.soundguys.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.soundguys.com)
        
       | em3rgent0rdr wrote:
       | takeaway at end:
       | 
       | > Measured THD doesn't appear to correlate particularly with our
       | reviewers' subjective impressions. > It is rare to find
       | commercially available headphones where harmonic distortion is
       | even an issue worth drawing attention to.
       | 
       | Turns out most listeners can't tell or aren't bothered as long as
       | the quality is good-enough.
        
         | smackeyacky wrote:
         | It's astonishing to read some of the online audio forums and
         | see just how much garbage is touted about noise in hi-fi
         | systems, although most of the forums seem to have moved on from
         | worrying about THD measurements and onto a variety of invented
         | problems.
         | 
         | - people who can "hear" different ethernet cables to their
         | system. Audiophile ethernet switches. - endless wittering about
         | jitter, despite nobody ever getting a measurement of jitter in
         | a system newer than about 1985 that would possibly be audible.
         | 
         | I'm not sure where most of it comes from other than some
         | unscrupulous operators making devices that "solve" your jitter
         | or ethernet issues with nonsense products that can't possibly
         | work in the way the manufacturer describes.
         | 
         | It has made most of the forums worthless as sources of decent
         | information about hi-fi. Any suggestion that the worries about
         | jitter or digital cables (or even good old RCA cables) cannot
         | possibly affect what you are hearing are shouted down by hordes
         | of screaming jitter monkeys. Something of a shame if you were a
         | beginner and wanted some concrete information about what you
         | should be looking for in a hi-fi.
        
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       (page generated 2021-11-29 23:00 UTC)