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RE: Listen for yourself

"I believe it's not the (relatively) high amounts of 2nd HD that make them "sound so good", it's the lack of 5th, 7th and 9th.

I believe (but can not prove) that the smallest amount (maybe even an amount that can't be measured) of 7th and it's game over. The electronics sound like electronics instead of music."

You may be right that it is a lack of higher odd-harmonic distortions that is responsible. (Is this actually a property of an SET, by the way? I can see why it would tend to have more even-harmonic distortion than a PP amplifier, but is there a reason why it would have less higher odd-harmonic distortion? I'm not doubting, just asking.)

However, what about the suggestion that the higher odd-harmonics below the threshold of measurability, could be responsible? A modern state-of-the-art spectrum analyser is amazingly sensitive. Is there really any reason to suspect that amounts below the threshold could have audible effects? Or is this an example of the very human desire (in some humans at least) to believe that there are things that lie beyond our understanding? If it could be demonstrated in convincing experiments that such effects were occurring, I would be only too happy to accept them. But I wonder what evidence there might be?

As a matter of practicality, I would have thought that any real-world amplifier in existence today would have 5, 7 and 9th order distortions that are actually within the range of measurability by present-day spectrum analysers, and so speculation about the possibility of such distortions below the measurable threshold would be, at this stage at least, academic. (Again, if I am wrong about this, I would be happy to be corrected.)

Chris


Edits: 07/07/17
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