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Originally Posted by Ethan Winer  If this were true, adding rock wool into a room would add audible distortion products. And we know that's not the case. |
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Originally Posted by Ethan Winer Nonlinearity usually means distortion is added to the sound. |
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Originally Posted by Ethan Winer Room acoustics is linear, so whatever happens at low levels happens the same at high levels. |
I'm really not sure you're with Andre and I here as to what is being discussed. What we are trying to say is that your statement "whatever happens at low levels happens the same at high levels" is not realistic, due to many factors, some mentioned in previous posts.
On 'distortion': If you take an empty room with a given response. The response at point A being the sum of modal response, ER and so on. You can call the effect of the room on the signal emitted by the speakers as distortion. Adding rockwool,
even if it's behaviour in transfering acoustic energy into something else (heat) is non linear vs SPL, you are still reducing the amount of energy in the room by a certain amount. So you are reducing "distortion" from the room. Only in some cases will you get added distorsion such as re-emission (as parasite vibrations induced by a membrane releasing energy for ex).
So it's a lot of shades of grey here. Blanket statements don't apply.
Non-linearity doesn't mean at all that you're adding distortion. Just that the response at point A at 50dB isn't the same as the one at 100dB. The opposite would be strange.
Now, off for a nice cold beer!