Distortion has a reputation problem. Most listeners still picture it the way it showed up on an old analogue TV signal — grainy pictures, zigzag lines, something unmistakably broken. But that’s not how distortion degrades the performance of your system today. In this Tech Talk, Roland Hoffmann, Director of Product Marketing at Steinway Lyngdorf and Lyngdorf Audio, explains why modern distortion is small, hidden, and far more insidious than the audible mess older gear used to produce — and why finding it has become a matter of data rather than ears.
Why distortion degrades the performance of your system without you hearing it as “distortion”
Even the cheapest amplifier on the market today doesn’t distort in a way you’d immediately recognise as distortion. The devil, as Hoffmann puts it, is in the detail: the small stuff, hidden deep in impurities, crosstalk, masking and harmonic content, that quietly pulls a recording away from the original sound without ever announcing itself as noise or grain. You don’t notice it’s there until it’s removed — and then, in an ABA comparison against a cleaner signal, the difference suddenly becomes obvious. It’s not that a grainy, noisy layer gets stripped away. It’s something far finer, happening mostly in the analogue domain, where component degradation and components influencing each other create problems that never existed in the original recording.
Linear versus non-linear distortion
Hoffmann draws a clear line between two broad families. Linear distortion changes the sound in a way that stays “in line” with the original — an old-school equalizer is the textbook example, useful when you want it, unwelcome when you don’t. Non-linear distortion is different: it’s created by components, or components interacting with each other, or a loudspeaker behaving in a way that isn’t aligned with the input signal at all. The result is extra information that was never in the recording — overtones and artefacts that show up as unexplained extra lines on a spectrum analyser, sitting where the original instrument or voice never put them.
Is THD the “big bad wolf” of audio specs?
Total Harmonic Distortion, the number that shows up on every spec sheet, is the best-known distortion metric — but Hoffmann is careful to call it the most known, not the most important. THD is a useful summary and relatively easy to measure, which is exactly why it became the industry’s shorthand. But it says nothing about intermodulation distortion, components saturating under signal, or the dozen other ways a circuit can quietly move a recording away from its source. Modern amplifier design, Hoffmann notes, has pushed THD down dramatically — and with it, brought back a purity and musicality that older designs, however technically competent, simply couldn’t reach.
Finding distortion is a measurement problem, not a listening problem
Asked how a designer actually reduces distortion, Hoffmann is blunt: the key is finding it, and that means measuring it properly. He points to Purifi as a company that made its breakthrough not through some proprietary material or exotic construction, but by measuring distortion more thoroughly than anyone before them — then engineering around nine separate construction and material choices to address different phases of distortion in a single driver. It’s the same underlying discipline Hoffmann connects to RoomPerfect: better calibration starts with taking more measurements from more microphone positions, because more data is what lets an engineer separate real problems from noise. Without measuring the right way, in the right place, with enough data, there is simply nothing to correct.
Why you have to visualise distortion to catch it
These days, distortion rarely announces itself as an audible hiss or noise the way it did on older gear. That means the only reliable way to find it is to visualise it — on a graph, in a spectrum, exaggerated on screen until it’s undeniable. Only then can an engineer decide whether it’s worth chasing down, and try a different component or design choice to see if the extra information disappears. It’s a discipline built entirely around data: get to the data, then figure out what the data is telling you.
Retaining musicality by getting out of the way
There’s a persistent myth that low distortion and musicality are opposites — that “accurate” gear sounds clinical while “musical” gear needs some flattering coloration. Hoffmann pushes back hard on this. Class D amplifiers and loudspeakers that are now exceptionally low in distortion are exactly the components reviewers describe as sounding “more musical,” because musicality returns once side effects are removed rather than added. As Hoffmann puts it, flavour belongs in the recording studio — salt and pepper applied once, deliberately, by the people making the record. On the reproduction side, the job of every component in the chain is to get out of the way and let that flavour through unchanged.
Frequently asked questions
How does distortion degrade the performance of your system if you can’t hear it as noise?
Modern distortion rarely sounds like classic noise or grain. Instead it hides in small, cumulative changes — impurities, crosstalk, masked harmonics — that quietly move a recording away from the original without announcing themselves, until you compare against a cleaner signal and suddenly notice what was missing.
What’s the difference between linear and non-linear distortion?
Linear distortion changes the sound while staying “in line” with the original signal, like an equalizer. Non-linear distortion creates extra information that was never in the recording at all, caused by components or drivers behaving in a way that isn’t aligned with the input.
Is Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) the most important distortion measurement?
No. THD is the best-known and easiest to measure, which is why it’s on every spec sheet, but according to Hoffmann it’s by no means the only distortion that matters — intermodulation distortion and component saturation both affect sound quality and don’t show up in a single THD number.
How did Purifi reduce distortion in its drivers?
Not through a new material or magic construction, but by measuring distortion far more thoroughly than earlier designs and then addressing roughly nine separate construction and material factors, each targeting a different phase of distortion in the driver.
Why do modern low-distortion amplifiers sound more musical, not more clinical?
Because musicality returns once side effects are stripped away rather than added. Coloration belongs in the recording studio, applied deliberately by the artist or engineer — not introduced again during reproduction by a component that isn’t transparent.
