ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Degree of start-stop distortion

Imagine you're playing a game of catch with a friend. When you throw the ball to them, it moves smoothly through the air until they catch it. But what if, instead of throwing the ball smoothly, you stopped halfway through and then started throwing again? The ball would jerk and wobble in the air, making it harder for your friend to catch.

This is kind of like what happens with audio signals in electronics and sound systems. When a sound or a piece of music is played, it travels through different electronic parts before it comes out of the speakers. Sometimes, due to the way these parts are designed, the signal is interrupted and then starts again. This makes the sound wave wobble and distort, just like the ball did when you stopped and started throwing it.

This glitchy, wobbly sound is called start-stop distortion. It can happen for a variety of reasons, such as poor quality cables, old or damaged equipment, or interference from other electronic devices. The degree of start-stop distortion refers to how much the sound wave wobbles and distorts. If it's very low, you might not even notice it. But if it's high, the sound can become hard to understand or very unpleasant to listen to.

Engineers and technicians use different tests and tools to measure the degree of start-stop distortion, to make sure that sound systems are working properly and producing good quality sound. By keeping this distortion low, they can ensure that music and other audio sounds the way it's supposed to, without any annoying glitches or wobbles.