Proton NMR spectroscopy as a means to quantify lipoprotein subclasses has received wide clinical interest. The experimental part is a fast routine procedure that contrasts favourably to other lipoprotein measurement protocols. The difficulties in using (1)H NMR, however, are in uncovering the subclass specific information from the overlapping data. The NMR-based quantification has been evaluated only in relation to biochemical measures, thereby leaving the inherent capability of NMR rather vague due to biological variation and diversity among the biochemical experiments. Here we will assess the use of (1)H NMR spectroscopy of plasma per se. This necessitates data for which the inherent parameters, namely the shapes and areas of the (1)H NMR signals of the subclasses are available. This was achieved through isolation and (1)H NMR experiments of 11 subclasses--VLDL1, VLDL2, IDL, LDL1, LDL2, LDL3, HDL(2b), HDL(2a), HDL(3a), HDL(3b) and HDL(3c)--and the subsequent modelling of the spectra. The subclass models were used to simulate biochemically representative sets of spectra with known subclass concentrations. The spectral analyses revealed 10-fold differences in the quantification accuracy of different subclasses by (1)H NMR. This finding has critical significance since the usage of (1)H NMR methodology in the clinical arena is rapidly increasing.