Handbook for Sound Engineers

630 Chapter 17

speakers have orders of magnitude higher levels of
distortion.
The degree to which loudspeaker distortion consti-
tutes an audible problem is a matter of some contro-
versy. Indeed, some of the more popular devices have
distortion levels that are quite high, even by loud-
speaker standards. Various studies over the years have
established the audibility of simple harmonic distortion

at levels above approximately 2%, but it is not clear that

all of these studies fully accounted for the distortion

present in the loudspeakers required to perform the

testing. The continuing popularity of tube amplifiers

among the audiophile community would tend to indi-

cate that at least some forms of distortion are perceived

as pleasing. In terms of simple harmonic distortion, it is

often asserted that even-order distortion products have a

Figure 17-52. CLF main window, showing balloon and polar graphics.

Figure 17-53. CLF main window, showing cabinet drawing and normalized off-axis response.

Down

Right

Up

Left

Re on-axis Back

Front

Re on-axis

Front

Left

Up

Up (Z)

Left (Y)

Front (X)

1 drn