A type of distortion present in some amplifiers which increases for low-level signals. In many amplifiers, the output devices are connected so that one of them is active during the positive half of the waveform, an the other one is active for the negative half. There is a region near zero current where the signal is transferred from one to the other. If this is not done smoothly, there will result a small discontinuity in the output waveform. This discontinuity causes higher-order harmonic distortion, and being constant in value, is more noticeable with low-level signals than with stronger ones. See crossover frequency.
