What exactly are harmonics, and how does it affect how our stereo equipment
sounds?

Thx

Harmonics are additions to the signal that are comprised of frequencies that
are integer multiples of a fundamental frequency. For instance, if you have
a 100Hz fundamental, then a 200Hz signal somehow generated by that
fundamental would be the second harmonic, 300Hz would be the third harmonic,
and so forth. The key here is that they have to arise from the fundamental
in order to be considered a harmonic.

Harmonics are an integral part of natural sounds. Violins, for instance,
can be distinguished from trumpets due to the spectral properties of the
sound. In other words, although a violin and a trumpet may both be playing
the same note, they sound very different. The reason they sound different
is because there are many frequencies that are being generated aside from
that one tone. There are higher frequencies, there are lower frequencies.
They all arise from something - whether it's the bow across the strings, the
reverberation of the wood, air noises through the trumpet, etc. Many of the
higher frequencies are harmonics of the tone. They arise in part due to the
way the string vibrates.

In the realm of audio reproduction, harmonics are usually considered bad.
The addition of harmonics to the signal that's on your cd doesn't faithfully
reproduce that signal. However, there are many instances where some
harmonics are considered good by many listeners, whereas other harmonics are
considered bad. It's not uncommon for many folks to actually prefer the
sound of the signal with the right distribution of second harmonics. Such a
sound is often described as "warm". Some tube amps are notorious for
introducing a significant amount of second harmonics, yet we know that many
people prefer tube amps and preamps over solid state.

Harmonics can also be generated when driving your amplifier into clipping.
When doing so, the signal becomes especially rich in odd order harmonics
(third, fifth, seventh, etc). This generally has a negative effect on our
perceived "quality" of sound. There are also phase-dependent effects that
shouldn't be overlooked. The addition of harmonics to a signal in one case
may sound one way, but if you shift the relative phase of the harmonics it
will often sound completely different.

No matter how you slice it, the introduction of harmonics when you're trying
to reproduce a signal is an introduction of distortion. It's not always
detectable by our ears, and even when it is detectable, it's not always
clear to us which is the distorted signal and which is the "undistorted"
signal.

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What exactly are harmonics, and how does it affect how our stereo
equipment
sounds?

Thx