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Term: Total harmonic distortion

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Term: Total harmonic distortion

Definition:
Although applicable to other waveforms, in the context of library- and archive-related digitization, THD is generally discussed in terms of sound. The total harmonic distortion of a signal is defined as the ratio of the sum of the powers of all harmonic components to the power of the fundamental frequency (the lowest frequency in a harmonic series). For devices that digitize recorded sound, guidelines from International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) specify digitizing system performance in terms of pass-fail values for THD plus noise (digital audio).
Category:
Audio
See also:
Distortion; Noise