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- May 4, 2018
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I think it has poor distortion for the price.
As others have noted, the 8c uses a cardioid midrange. The 8" driver is a high-performance midwoofer operating from 100 Hz to 1250 Hz. At the low end of that range, it has to work harder than it would in a sealed box because of the nature of a cardioid system, which relies on a front source and a rear source to cancel rearward energy, the latter of which is inverted and delayed. That the out-of-phase rear-wave cancels rear output, but it also slightly reduces forward output, meaning more excursion is required for the same SPL. This explains the increase in distortion just above the crossover when you really crank them. That said, it’s a very robust driver with excellent power handling, as shown by its low power compression even at much higher levels (see Erin's and SoundStage's measurements). As others have pointed out, this distortion isn't audible at typical listening levels. You'd have to push them quite far before it becomes noticeable.
In the deep bass, distortion is actually very low, especially when you consider the size of the speaker and the fact that it uses "only" two 8" subwoofers. These are OEM variants of the Wavecor SW223, which are actually of very quality. Published distortion figures of the 8c come from free-field measurements, where the woofers work about 6 dB harder than they would in a typical rooms. When placed near the front wall, as intended, the 8c benefits from Boundary Coupled Bass, which significantly eases the load on the woofers. The 8c also extends very low in frequency, so the drivers need to move more air at the lowest octaves, which naturally increases distortion. Some manufacturers reduce bass output at higher playback levels to keep distortion in check. While that approach can be effective, it also alters the tonality. We chose not to go that route. What goes in is what comes out, with no surprises.