pablolie wrote: > Yes 16/44 is plenty, and we deserve more recordings that... uh... > deserve it. > > Based on my reading, even the best human platinum ears can not hear > beyond 20/44. Again, in some extreme border cases arguably the > quantification error is the issue, and not the sampling frequency > (Nyquist nailed that one). > > But I have not EVER heard of ONE scientifically conducted test that ever > remotely indicates any human on the planet would benefit from anything > beyond 20/44... and most stuff we get in 16/44 doesn't remotely deserve > it, thanks music industry...
Your interpretation of the accepted scientific facts in this area are correct, but you may be asking the wrong question. I claim that the more relevant question is whether we can hear the *removal* of music above a certain frequency, since that is what we are actually doing. We always remove signals above a certain frequency when we make recordings and the like. The relevant question is how low we can set the limit and not hear the difference. This becomes relevant because of masking. At the highest frequencies, lower frequency signals mask higher frequency signals at the same amplitude because the sensitivity of our ears is falling off so rapidly. Furhtermore, musical sound with few exceptions have ampltudes that inherently drop off rapidly above certain frequencies due to the physics of how they work. There is a saying in analytical physics that "Everything is a combination of second order systems." and second order systems naturally fall off at 12 dB per octave above resonance. If you examine the spectral contents of a variety of recordings you will find that just about all of them have peak amplitude at 12 KHz or less, and naturally roll off pretty sharply above that. For example people talk about the high frequencies that are created by cymbals, but they generally peak around 7 KHz and roll off rapidly above that. It turns out that in the most sensitive test cases, a sharp roll off above 16 KHz if well done (and it generally is these days) is not detectable using musical program material, for listeners with really good hearing. For the rest of us, it could be half that or worse. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ arnyk's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=64365 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106935 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
