Interesting new video about THD..
- Distortion profile much more important than %THD value
- H2,H4 and H3,H5 can be benign
- odd order >=H7 can be objectionable
- some people may prefer more H2,H4
- some people may prefer more H3,H5
- NFB trigger higher gain requirement, resulting in problems
...then Darko took the opportunity to take a swipe at SINAD (29:40)
...then took a swipe at Topping DACs (33:30)
(Joker ... looks like he is ignorant that the SINAD chart do show the profile ...)
I caught this. He started by describing the harmonics which make different musical instruments sound different when playing the same fundamental as "harmonic distortion". At least his guest (from 6 moons I think) put him right on that!
But the guest then went on to "explain" why a tube amp with 10% THD might sound better than a solid state amp with THD of a few hundredths of a percent - it's all about high orders of distortion, particularly above 5th, apparently. He then went on to wax lyrical about the ability to "tune" speakers by adding warmth (with even order distortion) or sharpness (with odd order distortion) from a tube amp.
Of course, in theory, different types and mixes of harmonic distortion are going to sound different, but two massive issues were left unanswered: firstly, no discussion on the orders of magnitude greater THD from a tube amp, however benign (or looked at the other way, even if all of the say 0.01% THD of a modern amp is of the "nasty" type, how audible is that likely to be?). And secondly, no mention of the actual frequencies which would be involved in 9th, 11th, 13th order harmonic distortion.
Then Darko said the current fashion for SINAD measurements is even worse than the competition between manufacturers in the '70s and '80s for good measurements, because this time it's not driven by manufacturers but by idiots on the internet, and finished off a discussion which had been all about amplifiers by transferring the same theory to DACs to tell his audience how it explained why he didn't like Topping Dacs much, at least when compared to much more expensive ones.
It sounded to me like a massive apologia for expensive, badly-measuring tube amps on the part of the guest, and from Darko, a masterclass in passive aggression aimed at sites like this one.
It also seemed instructive that the entire segment (maybe the whole video, I stopped watching after the THD part) had the two talking heads in little boxes, with the vast majority of the screen taken up with what seemed to be adverts for expensive looking tube amps.
