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Room resonances and room noises are usually more audible and more important than subwoofer harmonic distortion

Start with three or four bass peaks of +3 to +6dB under 80Hz. and one or two bass partial nulls, then add all sorts of noises from the wood frame house and objects in it and then harmonic distortion doesn't seem so bad!

Since bass instruments have a lot of harmonics (a Fender bass note may produce more energy in the various harmonics than in the fundamental tone of a note, for an example) the harmonic distortion that accompanies a bass note is much harder to hear than HD with a sine wave tone.

Some Velodyne subwoofers will keep harmonic distortion below 2-3% and this advantage is easily audible when comparing a Velodyne to another brand in the same room using sine wave tones. But not audible with music until the bass reaches VERY high volumes where the Velodyne will restrict bass dynamics due to limiting. Whether this is audible or not depends on how many room noises are audible -- often quite a few at very high deep bass SPLs.

The best way to keep subwoofer harmonic distortion under control is to use enough bass drivers so that no driver has to stroke more than half its XMAX (or DUMAX) for whatever song you have in your collection that has the loudest deep bass content.
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Richard BassNut Greene
My Stereo is MUCH BETTER than Your Stereo

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