Deviation in the output of a device from the input given; differences in a signal from input to output when the signal should retain the same characteristics from input to output. Distortion is very simply a deviation from what is intended. speaker distorts when the audio waveform it produces does not exactly match the waveform it was fed from the amplifier. Ideally, the output should exactly follow the input. Whenever this does not occur, there is distortion. hink of an instance where a friend told you a story and you later told the story yourself to another person. When you retold the story to the other person, you probably did not recite it word-for-word as it was told to you. This would be considered distortion, wherever your retelling of the story differed from the original story. All audio and video components suffer from some degree of distortion. Look for those audio/video components with low distortion.