DMS said that harmonic distortion makes the sound pleasing

[nhatlam96]

From 4:25 to 5:00 DMS said:
"In the recording end things like harmonic distortion is sought after. Some very expensive and well rounded microphones add significant harmonic distortion, then are plugged in through tube amps to power microphones - tube compressors and processed through different equipment that all add different types of harmonic distortion, because it is a very pleasing sound."

Any thoughts?

 

[BDWoody]

From 4:25 to 5:00 DMS said:
"In the recording end things like harmonic distortion is sought after. Some very expensive and well rounded microphones add significant harmonic distortion, then are plugged in through tube amps to power microphones - tube compressors and processed through tons of different equipment that all add different types of harmonic distortion, because it is a very pleasing sound."

Any thoughts?

On the recording end, sure...that's part of their toolbox with which to create their art.

On the playback side, I'd like to see controlled tests that demonstrate how higher distortion leads to preference.

 

[abdo123]

music production =/= music reproduction.

almost every natural sound or instrument in the world produces harmonic distortion, even the human voice on its own does.

Electric guitarists are OBSESSED with the harmonic distortion profile of their amplifiers, it's almost as important to them as the guitar and the material they're playing itself.

However, when you reproduce that in your own living space you want the same distortion the artist added themselves into the track, otherwise you're not listening to what they intended for you to listen.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Also note that musicians apply distortion to individual instruments. High THD level correlating to high IMD levels would turn a full mix to mush, the busier the worse it gets. Possibly preferable with chamber music, not so much with metal...

 

[Vini darko]

Gotta get those affiliate link clicks

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Really good violins should radiate a pure sine wave. All of the harmonics are distortion. We must strive to perfect the violin.

 

[Tom Danley]

The issue is in the sound creation process anything that gives the artist the result they are happy with is fine.
But for the sound reproducer, if it is to be as faithful and practical to the input signal then one doesn't want to and any more than necessary.
The simple view of the complication is that even harmonics ARE musically related starting with the 2nd which is an octave BUT odd harmonics are much less present in music. Starting with the Beatles White album various flavors of added distortion are used in the recording / mastering process. The disadvantage to have that or other coloration's be part of the reproduction system is unlike the studio, you usually can't turn it off.

 

[Capitol C]

Really good violins should radiate a pure sine wave. All of the harmonics are distortion. We must strive to perfect the violin.

I believe that this is incorrect, a pure tone sounds like a tuning fork, not a violin. See https://www.intmath.com/fourier-series/6-line-spectrum.php.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I think you missed the intent of my sarcasm.

 

[Capitol C]

I think you missed the intent of my sarcasm.

My apologies, I bow to your superior wit!

 

[Chrispy]

Why is DMS' opinion important?

 

[RayDunzl]

Any thoughts?

Music is (almost) never played with instruments that do not harmonically distort their fundamental frequencies.

It's a major factor in what gives different instruments their unique sound.

The closest I've come to finding an "instrument" that does not create harmonic distortions was blowing across the mouth of a beer bottle.

Beer Bottle - 0.4% "distortion" of the fundamental frequency

A single electric Bass Guitar note, no effects added, just the signal picked up from the string, which can be interpreted as a sine wave with 22.7% distortion from its harmonic content.

It doesn't surprise me that some folks may prefer (or claim to prefer) a little added distortion in their playback.

I don't.

 

[BrEpBrEpBrEpBrEp]

Hi-fi stands for high-fidelity - i.e. reproducing exactly what goes in, with minimal added distortion. Any argument for added harmonic distortion during playback is moot so long as studios use clean amplifiers to listen to their finished mixes & masters.

Besides, you can use DSP to add distortion trivially, whereas a playback device has the distortion permanently baked in.

Also, doesn't he work for Abyss? You'd kind of have to like distortion.

 

[JohnYang1997]

It's fine. If one wants to do it then do it. The key here is that in the recording/producing, every instrument, every track can be manipulated individually. And the final product is what producer/mixing engineer/mastering engineer/recording engineer found good.
If distortion is added in the playback, everything is added with the same distortion. Unless one wants to add same flavour onto all the songs, all the instruments, I don't see the appeal.
Some people like to eq each song differently, that is fine.
It also comes down to intention, if you want to add distortion then all good.

 

[dfuller]

Because distortion is part of the artistic toolbox, so to speak, of production. We don't want that in reproduction.

 

[Pinox67]

I agree, in the production the distortion can be added to create the sound in the artistic intentions of the authors.
It would seem that once recorded, playback in our homes should introduce as little distortion as possible to recreate the original sound as faithfully as possible.

Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone, but scientific studies of not many years ago (therefore, no opinions) show that even in reproduction a certain form of distortion is preferable to not having any at all.
In this my recent post, on the relationship between measurements and sound quality, there is both a reference to the papers (by Geddes and Lee) and a summary of the results of these studies.
The problem is that both our audio equipment and our hearing don't behave linearly. Identifying the relationship between the distortions introduced by the former and the consequent effect on the listening sensation is the real challenge to be overcome.

 

[pozz]

Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone, but scientific studies of not many years ago (therefore, no opinions) show that even in reproduction a certain amount of distortion is preferable to not having any at all.

Geddes and Lee said there is no correlation between traditional engineering metrics and subjective impression for nonlinear distortion in playback devices. There is no implication that some amount of nonlinear distortion is preferred. Unless you have other studies in mind.

 

[Pinox67]

Geddes and Lee said there is no correlation between traditional engineering metrics and subjective impression for nonlinear distortion in playback devices. There is no implication that some amount of nonlinear distortion is preferred. Unless you have other studies in mind.

The implication is in the first bullet of they conclusions:

• There is virtually no correlation between Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) or Intermodulation Distortion (IMD) measurements of a system and the subjective impression of the sound quality of that system. The correlations were weak, but most shockingly they were negative—according to these tests people liked THD distortion. This is actually somewhat true in general that people prefer some forms of distortion to no distortion.

 

[Gorgonzola]

The implication is in the first bullet:

• There is virtually no correlation between Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) or Intermodulation Distortion (IMD) measurements of a system and the subjective impression of the sound quality of that system. The correlations were weak, but most shockingly they were negative—according to these tests people liked THD distortion. This is actually somewhat true in general that people prefer some forms of distortion to no distortion.

What is the basis for the popularity of tube amplification among audiophiles? In particular, the basis for preference by some for SET (single ended triode) amps such as based on tubes like the 300B? These audiophiles put up with extremely low power output in order to enjoy the sound of very high levels of 2nd order distortion combined with relatively low levels of high level distortion.

This is entirely consistent with the findings of "controlled testing" by Geddes and Lee.

 

[q3cpma]

What is the basis for the popularity of tube amplification among audiophiles? In particular, the basis for preference by some for SET (single ended triode) amps such as based on tubes like the 300B? These audiophiles put up with extremely low power output in order to enjoy the sound of very high levels of 2nd order distortion combined with relatively low levels of high level distortion.

This is entirely consistent with the findings of "controlled testing" by Geddes and Lee.

It is your assumption that this about sound quality and not just fulfilling their shiny go go gadget addiction. By the way, psychoacoustics tells you that H2 is almost always masked.