Amplifiers often exhibit nonlinear behavior, especially when pushed to maximum gain. Nonlinearities introduce distortion into the amplifier output. In particular, intermodulation distortion results at sum and difference frequencies of the input. Nonlinear distortion is very problematic for communication systems, but is exploited creatively by electric guitarists. Find out more and listen to examples of distortion at Nonlinear Systems in Amplification of Signals.
