Funny, back in the 50's it was normal to quote power ratings at 10%, for table radios, tv's etc. A tube amp is generally not unpleasant with 10% of mostly 2nd or 3rd harmonic content (it's not high fidelity either). But an inexpensive transistor amp at 10% is painful.
Ten Percent Distortion?
I have a little Panasonic SA-XR25 digital receiver for my TV rig (I can't really call it HT). Driving some good speakers it sounds great, and cost me all of $287. Tonight I was killing some time wandering around the Best Buy shop looking at similar electronics from Panasonic, and others, and I noticed that output power was quoted at 10 percent distortion! At first I thought this was a missprint, surely they meant 1 percent or even 0.1 percent. However several units, from several manufacturers, were described this way. Back home I quickly checked the SA-XR25 spec and was reassured to find a reasonable 0.3 percent stated.
What the heck is going on? Wouldn't 100 watts at 0.3 percent sell better than 140 watts at 10 percent?
What the heck is going on? Wouldn't 100 watts at 0.3 percent sell better than 140 watts at 10 percent?