Distortion

[joshpoints 10+ year member]

I have, what some may feel is a stupid question about distortion, but I really don't know the answer. You may say turn your music down, but I like it clean and loud. How can you tell the differrence between the speakers distorting and your ears distorting? On certain song when I listen to it loud, I hear like a distortion, but it feels like my ear is distorting. I'm trying to set the gain up on my amps and I turned the volume on the headunit to about 80% and then turned the gain up until I heard distortion. Then I backed it off to where the sound is clean but boarder line to where it is about to get colored from slight distortion. Then I'll be listening to songs and I'll get that distortion sound that is in my ears. The kind that you get when you are near a speaker in a club or at a concert. THe music doesn't sound that loud. Is it because my system is so clean that it doesn't sound loud, or could it be the type of tone it is (happens on what sounds like high treble parts). Thanks for your help. Oh, and I'm running amps to all the speakers. Each speaker is getting 100 watts rms. There are four speakers. I don't know if this will affect your answer.

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[Brock 5,000+ posts]

Well It could be either...I know what your talking about when you say it sounds like your ears distorting...usually its just a high-pitched noise that hits the sweet spot in your ear drum. Playing your music that loud all the time isnt healthy, but thats just my opinion...

 

[joshpoints 10+ year member]

Originally posted by Brock Well It could be either...I know what your talking about when you say it sounds like your ears distorting...usually its just a high-pitched noise that hits the sweet spot in your ear drum. Playing your music that loud all the time isnt healthy, but thats just my opinion...

So do you think my gain set-up is alright? It is set just below the point where the music starts to sound colored.

 

[Brock 5,000+ posts]

If it doesnt sound like its distorting to you than it should be fine. Obviously when you blare your stereo that loud there is always a chance of distortion anyways...

 

[joshpoints 10+ year member]

Originally posted by Jmac You do realize that most head units distort at 80% volume, right ?

I don't know about distortion, but sony said that I could run the volume up to 80% w/o clipping. I turned the gain up on my rear speakers slightly and I turned off the crossover on the amp and everything sounds cleaner. Are the crossovers on the headunits better than the crossovers on the amps. I get hissing with the crossover with the amp and I think it was also causing the speakers to distort at a lower volume. THey sound really good right now. Is a 128hz high pass crossover sufficient for 6.5 speakers?