What is the range of human hearing?


In the simpler days, let's say those of Audio magazine to provide an easy enough reference point, that range was said to be from 20 hz to 20 Khz. In fact, that was only good in younger people with good hearing. The linearity was far from perfect wihtin that range also, and middle-aged people, sometime after a life of working in a noisy environment, had measurable loss in the higher frequencies; 12 to 14 Khz being about as good as one could hope for at that age. Obviously the sampling rate debate has something to do with my question. I have read recently that humans may hear up to 23 Khz. This startled me, hence my question. I am not looking for theories or for explanations as to why cartridges should have a frequency response way over human hearing capabilities, or filtering in digital systems or whether tweeters should do more than tweet by sounding great to the family dog also. An answer on point is all I wish for.
pbb
My point exactly JL. I've done some recording on Neve consoles, and they are the shiznay. Rupert Neve sure must know something "extra" about sound reproduction!
Steady state tones, about 20 kHz. Harmonics/overtones, up to 80 kHz (maybe more - still a lot of study in this area of perceptual psychology).
But Rzado, isn't it true that any effects of the overtones you're refering to may be because of their intermodulation products within the audible band, or their impact on the performance of the test equipment used?
When I was still a teenager and before, and maybe up into my early 20s I could hear ULTRASONICS. Yes, it is true. The TV's 16.58khz was easy (is that the right freq?). When the Museum of Natural History was robbed by "Murph The Surf" and he took the Star of India Ruby, they decided to install ultrasonic detectors. Apparently they ran all the time, they just turned off the *indicators* during the day. I went in there and couldn't stand to be in my favorite room in the Museum! Very uncomfortable.

Many tweeters were unlistenable totally because of the out of band, and top of band crap - I remember a local fellow who had speakers with a pair of Janzen tweeter panels and a room of people who thought it sounded just fine. I heard this awful crackly stuff on top of the music. I said "don't you hear that" and received blank stares...

Can't hear up there anymore :- (

But it makes it plausible to be in the vicinity of things like power saws, other machines and the like... couldn't stand it as a kid.

So, different people hear very different things...

Ymmv.

:- )