Total harmonic distortion
Encyclopedia
Harmonic
A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
distortion
Distortion
A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...
present and is defined as the ratio of the sum of the powers of all harmonic components to the power of the fundamental frequency
Fundamental frequency
The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In terms of a superposition of sinusoids The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the...
. Lesser THD allows the components in a loudspeaker, amplifier or microphone or other equipment to produce a more accurate reproduction by reducing harmonics added by electronics and audio media.
Explanation
To understand a system with an input and an output, such as an audio amplifier, we start with an ideal system where the transfer functionTransfer function
A transfer function is a mathematical representation, in terms of spatial or temporal frequency, of the relation between the input and output of a linear time-invariant system. With optical imaging devices, for example, it is the Fourier transform of the point spread function i.e...
is linear and time-invariant
LTI system theory
Linear time-invariant system theory, commonly known as LTI system theory, comes from applied mathematics and has direct applications in NMR spectroscopy, seismology, circuits, signal processing, control theory, and other technical areas. It investigates the response of a linear and time-invariant...
. When a signal passes through a non-ideal, non-linear device, additional content is added at the harmonics of the original frequencies. THD is a measurement of the extent of that distortion.
When the input is a pure sine wave, the measurement is most commonly the ratio of the sum of the powers
Power (physics)
In physics, power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or transformed. For example, the rate at which a light bulb transforms electrical energy into heat and light is measured in watts—the more wattage, the more power, or equivalently the more electrical energy is used per unit...
of all higher harmonic
Harmonic
A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
frequencies to the power at the first harmonic, or fundamental
Fundamental frequency
The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In terms of a superposition of sinusoids The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the...
, frequency:
which can equivalently be written as
if there is no source of power other than the signal and its harmonics.
Measurements based on amplitudes (e.g. voltage or current) must be converted to powers to make addition of harmonics distortion meaningful. For a voltage signal, for example, the ratio of the squares of the RMS
Root mean square
In mathematics, the root mean square , also known as the quadratic mean, is a statistical measure of the magnitude of a varying quantity. It is especially useful when variates are positive and negative, e.g., sinusoids...
voltages is equivalent to the power ratio:
where Vn is the RMS voltage of nth harmonic and n=1 is the fundamental frequency.
THD is also commonly defined as an amplitude ratio rather than a power ratio, resulting in a definition of THD which is the square root of that given above:
This latter definition is commonly used in audio distortion (percentage THD) specifications. It is unfortunate that these two conflicting definitions of THD (one as a power ratio and the other as an amplitude ratio) are both in common usage.
As a result, THD is a non-standardized specification and the results between manufacturers are not easily comparable. Since individual harmonic amplitudes are measured, it is required that the manufacturer disclose the test signal frequency range, level and gain conditions, and number of measurements taken. It is possible to measure the full 20–20 kHz range using a sweep. For all signal processing equipment, except microphone preamplifiers
Preamplifier
A preamplifier is an electronic amplifier that prepares a small electrical signal for further amplification or processing. A preamplifier is often placed close to the sensor to reduce the effects of noise and interference. It is used to boost the signal strength to drive the cable to the main...
, the preferred gain setting is unity. For microphone preamplifiers, standard practice is to use maximum gain.
Measurements for calculating the THD are made at the output
Output
Output is the term denoting either an exit or changes which exit a system and which activate/modify a process. It is an abstract concept, used in the modeling, system design and system exploitation.-In control theory:...
of a device under specified conditions. The THD is usually expressed in percent as distortion factor or in dB
Decibel
The decibel is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities...
relative to the fundamental as distortion attenuation.
THD+N
THD+N means total harmonic distortion plus noise. This measurement is much more common and more comparable between devices. It is usually measured by inputting a sine waveSine wave
The sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation. It occurs often in pure mathematics, as well as physics, signal processing, electrical engineering and many other fields...
, notch filtering the output, and comparing the ratio between the output signal with and without the sine wave:
A meaningful measurement must include the bandwidth of measurement. This measurement includes effects from intermodulation distortion, and so on, in addition to harmonic distortion. In Europe, it is preferable to apply a ITU-R BS.468 weighed curve, which is intended to accentuate what is most audible to the human ear, contributing to a more accurate measurement. However, as the weight of the curve adds 12 dB of gain to the critical midband, making THD+N measurements bigger, manufacturers object to its use and have widely prevented its adoption in American and Asian markets.
For a given input frequency and amplitude, THD+N is equal to SINAD
SINAD
SINAD stands for Signal-to-noise and distortion ratio. It is a measure of the quality of a signal from a communications device, often defined as:...
, provided that both measurements are made over the same bandwidth.