High freq of speaker spec more than 20.000 hz. Does it do any good?

[Dan Turner]

To clarify my comments, I wouldn't be prejudiced against any speaker manufacturer who designed their speakers to go higher than 20khz. The sad fact is that they may need to in order not to be discounted by people who've bought into the fallicy! But there are clearly people are are seeking this out this 'capability' and vehemently defending the principle that here is some benefit to a speaker reproducing frequencies beyond the audible spectrum and its them that I pity. And of course any speaker manufacturer that actively capitalises on it that I regard with a mixture of admiration and contempt!

 

[CnoEvil]

To clarify my comments, I wouldn't be prejudiced against any speaker manufacturer who designed their speakers to go higher than 20khz. The sad fact is that they may need to in order not to be discounted by people who've bought into the fallicy! But there are clearly people are are seeking this out this 'capability' and vehemently defending the principle that here is some benefit to a speaker reproducing frequencies beyond the audible spectrum and its them that I pity. And of course any speaker manufacturer that actively capitalises on it that I regard with a mixture of admiration and contempt!

I'm not trying to be argumentative or difficult, but I've never heard of anyone on here (or elsewhere) discounting speakers purely on whether they can go above 20 kHz or not.

I would suggest that most people putting together a demo list, are unlikely to give the top frequency more than a cursory glance.....they are too busy checking out how low they will go. They will then make their selection based on how it sounds, which will be effected more by the type and material of the tweeter.

When I give a recommendation, the top frequency response doesn't enter the equation (I don't even check it out)....only the quality and character of the sound it delivers, as well as it's suitability to the OP's needs /system.

 

[Dan Turner]

Fair enough cno. I hope you're right, but clearly some people buy in to the belief that sounds beyond the human audible range are of consequence and defend that position and clearly some manufacturers are happy to cash in on that. Like I say, the fact that a speaker can reproduce sounds above 20khz is not, in and of itself, something that I have an opinion on.

 

[6th.replicant]

With regard to SACDs and hi-res downloads, the science relating to frequences etc that the human ear can / cannot detect is irrelevant. Probably.

In the spirit of Einstein's "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough," I'll step aside and quote a wise fella, Jud, from another forum:

"...For the vast majority of us, our DACs will handle 44.1k differently than 96k, and 96k differently than 192k, in that the lower resolutions will run through more rounds of filtering/oversampling than the higher resolutions. Those filters are imperfect (this is mathematically provable). So it's indisputable that the vast majority of DACs will put lower-res files through more rounds of imperfect filtering than they will for higher-res files. The germane topic is then to what extent we can hear the effects of these extra rounds of filtering."

 

[Bialykot]

I suppose the concept is similar to wavelengths humans can or can't see. We can't see, for example, X rays or radio waves, so I don't understand why we would hear ultra high frequencies if our ears do not respond to them. And as to why speaker manufacturers have tweeters that exceed well above 20kHz, well it's because they can achieve this quite easily and cheaply, so they may as well include this to ensure they don't lose market share.

 

[busb]

pauln and others - please provide scientific professional evidence that humans categorically cannot hear, or be affected by frequencies above 20khz. There are some who believe that consciously you may not fathom anything above 15 or 20khz, but that subconsciously you may actually be hearing something.

As far as I've read the perceived human range of 20-20khz is not absolute in any way.

http://support.tannoy.com/entries/20608577-What-s-the-fuss-about-Wideband-

This confirms the only reason for upping the f beyond what we can perceive is to keep the in-band phase response as linear as possible. It's often called Phase Delay. It may also effect Group Delay but my knowledge is a bit shaky on this subject.