Ten Percent Distortion?

Twl....Maybe it's because I've been around so long that distortion is of interest to me. When I started out, harmonic and IM distortion in even the best amps were both over one percent. Technical improvements have made numbers on the order of a few tenths commonplace, and this is the big advance that I see in audio amps. Sure, distortion specs are not the whole story, but (IMHO) an amp that starts out with more than 1 percent distortion has two strikes against it.

Pragmatist...Most amps exhibit an abrupt increase in distortion at some power level (a "knee" in the curve), and you don't gain much more power by citing a higher distortion level.

The sales people at BestBuy seem to know what distortion is, as that seemed to be the only selling point this chump was using to get some poor guy to buy the most expensive Yamaha receiver they had. I tried to convince him that 140 wpc was way more than his 6ohm 91db Yamaha speakers needed to sound loud.

Personally, while you can find a decent sounding component as BestBuy once in a blue moon, the stuff they carry is the antithesis of what almost all of us here are searching for.

Distortion, watts, whatever. I found out a long time ago, these specs mean little in the grand scheme of things. Show me a 250 wpc Panasonic, Sony, or what have you, and I will show you a 50 wpc high end amp that walks all over it when it comes to power. Remember, there are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics. Power is speced through an 8 ohm RESISTIVE load, playing a 1 KHz sine wave. But, almost all speakers are reactive(not a flat load), and many are highly so. Further, we listen to MUSIC(not a flat signal), not test tones - at least, most of us do(I do see far too many audiophiles who care more about how their system measures than they do about music) .

So, what do these specs reaallly tell you???

But, yes, for the massfi buyer, I would think that 100 wpc at 0.3% sounds better than 140 wpc at 10%.

These Panys(I have two 45's) are actually around 80 watts rms into an 8ohm load.
Need more power, then daisy chain two of then through the digital out and bi-amp like I have done.
This provides 200 watts rms into each of my 6 ohm speakers and is a dramatic improvement in every area.

So much so, that I sent both 45's off for new binding posts, solid silver hookup wire direct to the posts, along whith Jensen 4 pole and Blackgate caps in the power supply and signal path.

All 6 channels will be bi amped, and I am going to compare to some hi end gear after mods for 2 channel playback.

The Kenwood,Jvc,Yamaha ect digital amped receivers also play the numbers game whith quoted specs.

Actually, the 100wpc at .3% distortion amp sounds the same as the 140wpc at 10%, since it is the same amp.! But which spec is more attractive? The 140wpc one, of course, so it is the one used. The % distortion is rarely quoted in big letters.

Bob P.