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RE: What Makes SET Amps Tick?

Posted by 13th Duke of Wymbourne on May 21, 2025 at 18:45:16:
I have heard a manufacturer say such a thing and it seems plausible at first instance but I think the claim doesn't stand up to a little thought. That the ear creates distortion I have no doubt - the eardrum membrane pushing against a little bone that pushes against another little bone that pushes against a third little bone that pushes against another membrane (transforming a small movement of the large ear drum to a large movement of the small opening to the cochlear) that vibrates fluid in the cochlear that in turn vibrates the basilar membrane that moves the cilia that cause nerves to fire...etc. Not audiophile designed. But, surely, your brains knows how to distinguish between sounds originating from outside the ear to those created inside the ear and would only cancel what is creating inside? Everything we hear is distortion, the difference between a piano and a violin playing the same note, the character of a voice is all distortion, we never hear pure tones. And the only way to test this is to strap headphones onto a test subject and ask them to compare signals so all you are testing is the threshold of audibility of second harmonic not why the threshold is what it is. But, there is a ton of research by hearing psychologists so maybe someone has studied this but I kind of think they are not too inclined to placate audiophiles.
In similar vein, Ralph brings up the lower order distortion masking higher order distortion. This is plausible too but I would love to see this quantified with some examples to see if it really is a thing and compare it to the masking effect of the fundamental itself. As you consider higher harmonics the frequency separation from them to the second and the fundamental become closer and the amplitude of the fundamental will be much larger than the second harmonic. Is masking of high harmonics by low harmonics real or just a conspiracy by tube amplifier designers put about to sell tube amps? :)