Loudspeakers are not perfect. At high driving level, they add distortion to the music you play, reducing the quality of sound reproduction.

Whether you can hear the distortion depends on many factors - like the actual loudspeaker, the music you play, the loudness level, and the training of the listener.

We provide an interactive listening test where we determine the audibility of nonlinear distortion for different music signals and different speakers.  

Normally, when playing music, you cannot easily separate the linear signal (what your loudspeaker is supposed to play) from the distortion. With a simulation, we can do that - and then mix it together again, but with the distortion enhanced or attenuated.

This way, we can make the distortion artificially more or less audible.
For the test you should listen with a "perfect speaker" - headphones are a good approximation, since they add almost no distortion on their own.

How it works - more details about the test
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You get a subjective impression how different kinds of loudspeaker distortion sound. If you know this, you are able to detect them much more easily. 

Immediately after the test, you see your results - and you may compare your hearing capabilities with other listeners.

You also get a feeling what kind of music or test signal is critical, or what kind of stimulus can be played on every speaker without hearing a difference.

Finally, when you take the test again, you will most likely notice you find lower thresholds - your ear has been trained.

We collect the data - anonymously of course - and aggregate statistics that explain the mechanisms of hearing distortion. The basic statistics are immediately available on the web site.