Distortion Any departure from a true and accurate reproduction of the original waveform. It can include Noise , Clipping Distortion, Harmonic , and Intermodulation Distortion . These last two forms are fairly common in loudspeaker reproduction and can be reduced but not entirely eliminated in the existing technology. Distortion is the name given to anything that alters a pure input signal in any way other than changing its size. The most common forms of distortion are unwanted components or artifacts added to the original signal, including random and hum-related noise.
Distortion measures a system's linearity - or nonlinearity.
A spectral analysis of the output shows these unwanted components. If a circuit is perfect, it does not add distortion of any kind. It's true that the reduction of any distortion anywhere is a positive contribution to the goal of high fidelity, but the disparity between the two technologies in this regard points up the largely subjective nature of many such claimed advantages. Utilizes their AC-3 method of digital compression. The signal is optically printed between the sprocket holes.