Uncomfortable Audio Experiences: Truths About Sound System & Loudspeaker Distortion: Summary

There are many sound systems that have some little problems that lead to larger ones. Those little problems don’t only hurt the system itself, but it also hurts the receiving end. People tend to make things louder when they don’t think it is good enough. Others try to use inappropriate gain staging to fix distortions problems. The article titled Uncomfortable Audio Experiences: Truths About Sound System & Loudspeaker Distortion explains how distortion can damage someone’s hearing without even knowing.

It is important for people to understand that a great loudspeaker system has to have even frequency response. A system that is well balanced and tested can prevent and solve problems before they even occur. Many loudspeaker companies try to create products with flat frequency responses that can be easily handled when it comes to sound level. A system that is well balanced gives peak signals headroom before clipping. Sound systems are usually turned up too loud even with a flat frequency response. Some frequencies seem to be louder than others causing people to turn the level up or adding more speakers that aren’t necessary.

If the signal is weak it is very difficult to make it sound good. Adding more speakers and level to a horrible signal source will not make it better. The article mentions how having a degraded signal can harm human hearing and how distortion is more damaging than high sound level. Distortion caused by horrible gain staging is usually a sin wave that is being chopped off and creating somewhat of a square wave. Square waves also create odd harmonics that aren’t pleasant to humans at all. A square wave can damage a speaker and can also damage human hearing. The article states that human ears and brains aren’t designed to deal with distorted signals for a long period of time.

Many times a signal is distorted before it even reaches a loudspeaker. This is a major problem because speakers tend to add their own distortion to signal. Loudspeakers add distortion with odd harmonics that aren’t pleasant to human hearing. Odd harmonics being adding to a signal that’s already distorted is a horrible combination. Loudspeakers also have a problem with ringing. Ringing is when a speaker cone continues to vibrate long after it has produced a signal. Speakers can be stopped from ringing with more dampening. The dampening material will make the speaker cone heavier and causing fewer vibrations.

Live audio isn’t about loud music that causes discomfort. People should be able to feel the music but not to the point of pain. A lot of distortion is created from high sound levels that are only unpleasant to humans. Proper and even frequency response and system tuning can solve all the problems of distortion and super high levels of loudspeaker systems.