if the total harmonic distortion of an amp @ 4-ohm RMS power<0.05% is that good/bad help a brudda out

 

The lower the better / the more accurate the sound is. The alpine i have is 0.08% and sounds just fine to me, 0.05% is as good or lower compared to what I've seen for many amps, even over a grand.

Sounds good (no pun intended), go for it. What kinda amp is it btw?

-vasu

 

THD specs for an amp always look good, btw.

As a theoretical rule, you don't hear less than around 1% THD (some believe you can't less than three percent - I'm not taking a side). As a rule, the distortion of a transistor amp goes DOWN until it hits a "wall" and goes straight up - so the power rating of an amp is supposed to be the highest power OP that it stays below 1%. Alpine rates at 0.08, many others do too... o.o5 percent is fine.

But it's not critical... we hear other types of distortion more than harmonic distortion (intermodulation for one), and since the FTC doesn't regulate car amps your test migt or might not be real. Here's a personal explanation of distortion that might help:

http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/EARS.htm#Distortion

 

Since our ears produce distortion there is no true way of eliminating it? Is there any way of "fooling" our ears into not hearing any. Also the major distortion comes from speakers from what i believe? What can i do to look to reduce or eliminate if at all possible all types of distortion (intermodulation, harmonic and speaker?)

Thanks, jason

 

You need to worry more about you or your installer grounding(and powering)* the amplifier (and components) correctly, then the exact specs of what the amp can do, and this covers probably 95% of the car amp brands out there...

*= Well really, the whole install, all together...

 

There's a whole body of work on what types and levels of distortion we hear, and which decrease musicality. For instance, THD is usually far from the most objectional form, because THD is made up of harmonics, and musical instruments create harmonics.

And I'm not sure that our ears produce distortion.. I would say that in some ways measuring equipment is more precise than our ears... but the ear is always the final arbiter, and has the last word...

 

Thanks i will be installing my system myself. So basically worry about installing it correctly and i will have no worries right mon

 

yeah, just install it well and you'll be fine. make sure to ground it as short as possible. There's one popular install shop around here that always runs the ground back up through the firewall and reconnects it to some metal in the engine bay, arg!

In my previous 98 accord that was a bolt for a hanger that was about 1.5ft away from where I mounted my amp, and that made a perfect ground.

See if there's a bolt or something back there that you can slip a ring or spade terminal under, otherwise, just drill a hole / tap a screw through some un-painted metal and make a new short ground. (and if you don't know what a ground is, it's just any body metal that's unpainted).

-vasu

 

lol i knew what a ground was but thanks for telling me anyway umm anyone have success and finding a short ground i am just making sure everything is right before i install my system once i have everything figured out should have it done by x-mas