solderdude
Grand Contributor
I was talking generally, « normal« for a peace of gear may not be for all tube gear. In this particular case, This amp is out of it’s linear zone at 1 mW in 30ohms. Under normal listening conditions, it will certainly be in that increasing THD zone for all or most peaks. How much is audible I don’t know but based on Amir impressions, It’s fair to assume it is, in this case, too much even, but it doesn’t translate the same for everything with tubes out there.
At 32 ohm and 10mW peak distortion is -60dB = 0.1% distortion and in music is not really that audible.
With your average headphone this means 110dB peaks. Distortion from the headphone itself will be higher.
At 'normal listening levels' most people are around 1mW peaks.
Of course, driving low efficiency planars or 300 ohm headphones at impressive levels things will be different.
Just mentioning that those listening at sensible levels for music enjoyment with 'normal' headphones (the ones that will be buying things like this) will probably never reach levels with audible amounts of distortion.