When does speaker distortion become audible?

When does speaker distortion become audible?
When you can hear it...
I think my personal speaker taste is moving towards less analytical, super detailed sound to a more musical, tone based preference
Excellent. Now we just need you to get some tubes in there; then you'll have some real music ;-)

+1
Funny B limo I just did the opposite. I went from Dyn C1 Signatures to the Raidho D1's. Now I never thought there was a lack of clarity with the Dyn's until I heard the Raidho's. But I wouldn't really call it a clarity issue but more of a blacker background with the Raidho. All along I've been using tubes and I can't believe how good the music sounds now. The pinpoint imaging and detail is almost like electrostatics. The only downside I hear is a very small but focused sweet spot.

I'll say it too - consider tubes!!

Above 10%??? How much above... Years ago some of the test repots would give distortion figures in speaker tests. Usually just for woofers. I'd have to do a lot of looking & then try to translate it into the real world.

Sounds like you've got more coherence which can and will afford you both better clarity and tone. You don't have to lose one to get the other.

All the best,
Nonoise

There exists an astonishing amount of differences in capability of speakers to render the signal accurately/beautifully. It is common when comparing speakers to have the sense that one is far more clean/clear/distortion-free than another.

The other half of what Douglas said is that our memory is very poor & gets there very quickly. We remember in a "somewhat" fashion. Lots of speakers may sound great until we do side by side auditions.
Overall, it was good or not quite good. And lots of us have that problem. It's never as accurate as gettig a "bad ice cube."