Chris, as I indicated, in my view THD as a practical matter should be a non-issue for us. It appears that power delivered with less than about 1% THD is audibly clean in listening to music, so anything up to that number should be fine. It could also be noted that a unit with a relatively "high" rating of say 0.7%(possibly to make the "magic" 100 watt mark while still complying with mandatory FTC power rating regulations)would probably measure about 0.1% just a few watts lower. Measurements in thousandths of a percent, while a testament to engineering excellence, aren't of audible significance.
Of some interest is the
Yamaha discussion in the power rating section of their faqs. Although they follow the typical practice by rating their receivers at a power level where distortion is a little under 0.1%(e.g. 0.07%), they acknowledge the lack of significance of such a number.
