AES E-Library

Correlation of Audio Distortion Measurements

The sensitivity of five audio distortion measurement methods is investigated by experimental measurements on circuits which simulate five basic distortion mechanisms. The results show that the ordinary methods of measuring total harmonic distortion and intermodulation distortion do not reveal dynamic distortions, and that every method has unacceptably low sensitivity for at least one distortion mechanism. The combined use of the dynamic intermodulation method and the two-tone difference frequency method for a complete specification of amplifier distortion is recommended because their "blind spots" do not overlap. Distortion measurements on 11 commercial power amplifiers and 11 operational amplifiers have shown a mixture of the basic distortion mechanisms, mostly dynamic distortions for the operational amplifiers, and mixed static and dynamic distortions for the power amplifiers. In addition, more complex distortion mechanisms have been noted in the power amplifiers. The results obtained by the different methods have been found to correlate qualitatively but not quantitatively for each type of basic nonlinearity separately. For mixed nonlinearities and in the case of commercial amplifiers the qualitative correlation disappears, and there seems to be no reliable way of predicting the measurement results of one method from that of another method.

Authors: Leinonen, Eero; Otala, Matti
Affiliation: Technical Research Centre of Finland, Electronics Laboratory, SF-90101 Oulu 10, Finland
JAES Volume 26 Issue 1/2 pp. 12-19; February 1978 Import into BibTeX

Click to purchase paper or login as an AES member. If your company or school subscribes to the E-Library then switch to the institutional version. If you are not an AES member and would like to subscribe to the E-Library then Join the AES!

This paper costs $20 for non-members, $5 for AES members and is free for E-Library subscribers.

Learn more about the AES E-Library

E-Library Location: (CD aes4)   /jrnl7888/1978/7553.pdf

Start a discussion about this paper!