In any case, sorry Charles, it's kind of silly to complain about distortion of .016% and say that the receiver isn't delivering at 84W.
To be clear, I'm not saying I can hear the distortion at .016%. My point is that my Denon is harsh on high frequencies spikes, and my separate amp is not. Assuming those spikes are hitting when 100 or more watts are being pushed (or 100+ db), then that % climbs above .016 (seed the red 45 degree line on the chart above).
At 108 wpc you get 0.1%, at 135 watts you have 1% distortion. [
Not really, because my PSBs are 4ohm, so it is more like 174 wpc at 1%.] At 50 hz, 1% is imperceptible. [See Alan's article.] But at 12,000 hz, from what I have read (which is preschool compared to JohnK's reading) you can hear such inaccuracies - and they are annoying and cause listening fatigue in my brain.
See, "The LED begins to become visible at 0.1% distortion, and reaches fairly full brightness at 1-10% distortion, which is clearly audible." QSC Technical FAQs; see also, "In general, the more complex the sound, the less audible the clipping. Light clipping of transients will in fact increase the apparent high-frequency content and give the sound a little more edge." Peavey Support - Clipping Revisited.With my new amp, which does not come close to clipping at 135 watts or 175 watts, I don't hear those harsh peaks anymore. Or, I should say, I hear the peak now, not the distortion of the peak being clipped.
But, if I switch to 5ch stereo, I can hear the harshness on the center channel - although much less often or pronounced. I assumed that is because there is more power to go around before clipping when ch 1 and ch2 are not being handled by the Denon.
Or, maybe it is all the same no matter what you buy. If so, I still needed to trick my brain to find more enjoyment, and I did. (But now I know I tricked myself, so...crap, I bet I can hear the harshness again. Damn. Time for new speakers.)
