Taking into account the above points, 100 percent power input into a loudspeaker is going to result in the most dreadful audio and therefore is completely irrelevant.
In contrast, I cannot help but notice a dearth of published distortion figures for most speaker systems now on the market.
This wasn’t the case in the past, so I am concluding that in fact the business has in some respects gone backward, and there’s a general tacit agreement not to publish these embarrassing specifications anymore.
Torrent of Noise
The difference between clean, well-defined sound and the all-too-frequent torrent of white noise cannot be over emphasized.
First, working in the usual stereo mode, the producer will have the instruments mapped out on the sound stage.
In the multidimensional internal listening space, the separation and placement of these instruments will be apparent and easy to find. Distortion prevents this subtle, mental reconstruction process by changing the audio information.
While this is bad enough on its own, what’s even more important is the fact that the ugly sound literally drives you away, much like your desire to leave the company of an aggressive and vexatious person.
There is no way under these conditions that you are going to open your mind to the possibilities of a multi-dimensional sound stage inside your head.
But I am beginning to realize that there are many so-called audio engineers who have lived with awful sound systems for so long that they have no idea what I am talking about.
You know the kind of people I mean the ones who say, “Make their ears bleed.” Crushing level is absolutely not what the audio experience is about.
It is about internal space. Anyone who really knows will understand that a righteous audio experience is akin to meditation.
A yet further aspect of this is the complete abuse of fee-paying audiences with horrendous sound.
Let’s remember that being able to enjoy music, nay sound, is one of our freedoms, and it breaks my heart to see it so consistently abused and misapplied.
Tony Andrews is noted for his work as a designer of Turbosound and Funktion-One loudspeakers.