How Much Are You Missing From 20khz to 45khz?


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I've seen speakers rated at 20khz on the top end and those rated at 45khz on the top end. All other things being equal, is that a big audible difference in a speaker?
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128x128mitch4t
The issue is phase shift. That is why bandwidth is nice.

The less phase shift, the better the imaging.

Phase shift is caused by group delays that in turn are caused by a rolloff in the equipment. They can have artifacts to 10x higher than the low frequency rolloff, and 10X lower than the high frequency rolloff.

This is less of a problem in speakers than electronics, but its still an issue.
Ralph, let me see if I understand what you're saying. A speaker which has a flat FR out to 45K Hz will have less (?) phase shift in the audio range than speakers with a lower frequency bandwidth. This is a good thing.

If I've got that right, I will return to an old saw -- I've seen the impedance and phase angle plots for my speakers. The graphs look like a roller coaster. Even still, the speaker sound fine and imaging is very good. Can you clarify what I think I understand? Thanks
Don_c55 - thanks for the reference. I continue to tell people that the human brain and nervous system are far more sensitive than is generally believed. Oohashi's result seem to confirm that. It was particular interesting that subjects said they heard nothing, yet there was brain activity associated with sound great than 20 KHz. Something is clearly going on above 20 KHz even if we can not "hear" it in the traditional sense. One question is whether modern electronics and speakers are taping into that high frequency information or whether somthing like Atmasphere's explanation is what is happening.

The more we know, the more we don't know.