When does speaker distortion become audible?

Hi Kijanki, please put a face on the point you made about speaker distortion. IOW, ... is speaker distortion measured in percentages?? What are considered respectable distortion stats as a function of frequency? To what extent is it fair to assume that beyond a certain SPL, speaker distortion rises quickly, kinda' like when an amp clips.

Is it also fair to assume that the higher the magnetic flux density as measure in Gauss, the more control the magnets will have over the cone, thereby lowering distortion. For example, the magnetic flux density of my tweeter and midrange drivers is 20,000 and 15,000 Gauss, respectively. I have no clue if these are good, bad, neutral or irrelevant stats.

Happy Holidays,

Bruce

According to Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen speakers operating at power higher than 10W can get 10-12% of distortion. Most of it comes from the woofer and is less audible.
Here is fragment of interview with Robert Lee:

"That is a good point and I would like to say this. There are thousands of speaker manufacturers worldwide but so far I have identified less than ten who employ underhung drivers. I think that underhung drivers are the best solution to reduce harmonic distortion in the bass. No one ever talks about the huge amounts of THD in the low frequencies, especially when you are playing things loud. Most drivers create from 10-12% THD when you listen at over 10 watts. If you are listening to 10 watts through your speaker system, you get 5% harmonic distortion. So what are you listening to? When people design amplifiers, they rate them at 0.05% harmonic distortion. Meanwhile even at modest volume levels, your low-frequency drivers put out 5% or greater harmonic distortion so nobody can listen at even low levels and achieve true purity with low distortion, never mind concert levels.
That's why I selected to use both the underhung driver and a ribbon tweeter of my own design."

As for the flux density your assumption seems logical to me but perhaps speaker builders can chime in?

It's a strange thing, that when a high end system is turned up a little louder than average distortion is very audible. Yet, the speakers and the amp are operating within their range. Anyone else notice this? Funny how we get used to the distortion.

Thanks for the response Kijanki. Smiling a little after reading the quote from Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen. You may find the bench test results -- particularly those relating to distortion at 100 db SPL -- for an earlier version (v2) of my speakers (v3) to be interesting:

*ww.hometheaterhifi.com/surround-sound-speaker-systems/surround-sound-speaker-systems-reviews/a-secrets-speaker-system-review/page-4-the-paradigm-reference-signatures-on-the-bench.html

Cheers,

Bruce

Bruce, I had previously Paradigm Studio 60v2. It had 2 1/2 way xover. One of two 6.5" woofers operated only at the low bass frequencies extending that way frequency response. My current Hyperion 938 have two 8" woofers in much larger cabinet (pretty much like Wilson Puppy) but bass extension is actually worse. What is different, though, is the sound of the bass. I'm not sure if this would come up in any distortion test but bass is more pleasant, more musical. Bass tones are even with realistic attack and decay. I've read that bass reflex speakers might be tuned for extension or for the lowest distortion. People talk of bass as low or as powerful or tuneful but there is something else making it sound real.