Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

@mijostyn i was at a wireless mic workshop and the equipment manufacturer of the new digital transmitters was getting criticized because his microphones didn't transmit over 16k hz. They set this demonstration up in a theater that was rated to 20k hz when the manufacturer said he was playing a 16k hz tone through the transmitter he asked who could hear it, several of the hands of the sound engineers in front slowly went up then quickly more raised there hands as the per pressure behind them grew. Then the manufacturer said oops I forgot to turn on this switch nothing was coming out, hands quickly when down, he said how about now a few hands went up then changed their mind then no hands, he said is this working no one could answer except the video guy in the back said he could see the 16k hz audio tone on his monitor. It just showed even in a room full of people who made their living with their ears adults typically can't hear 16khz.

… no one could answer except the video guy in the back said he could see the 16k hz audio tone on his monitor. It just showed even in a room full of people who made their living with their ears adults typically can't hear 16khz.

Thank god for the measurement.

adults typically can’t hear 16khz.

The pursuit of higher and higher resolution files is like chasing rainbows. This is why the law of diminishing returns kicks in hard for two channel purists. Do you know WHY audio shows are full of $50K amps and $100K speakers. That is what it takes to squeeze out the last "bits" of two channel resolution. I am firmly in the camp with Tomlinson Holman who states multi channel offers very great value. I use his Audyssey DSX codec which is channel based, incredible, especially with live recordings. In essence, add WIDE channels to your system BEFORE height channels. Object based Atmos is great but less than 10% of the available music out there is mixed in Atmos. Audyssey DSX is an upmixer:

As Mr Holman is quick to point out, any audio engineer confronted with the question, “what do you want to do with a higher bitrate?”; will always ask for more frequency range and more dynamic range because they don’t know what to do with more channels. "It’s a new paradigm." "Just to go to 192 KHz sampling rate to satisfy passing bats instead of human beings is pretty crazy, but adding channels is of very great value." (For those readers not terribly familiar with flying rodents, bats have an ability to hear ultrasonic frequencies, the kind you can reproduce with a 192 KHz sampling rate). In answer to the question what is 10.2? Mr Holman replies "It is as far as we can push the market without people thinking we are crazy."

When pursuing multi channel the limiting factor tends to be space, space for speakers and space for amps. ACTIVE speakers that house the amps inside resolved that dilemma for me. For anyone wishing to experience unleashed dynamics and realism try this setup with either a processor that does Atmos with wides or DTS-X Pro:

An Atmos version of the same layout (as you see in my virtual system) The angles are key, I moved the top middle ceiling speakers a little more in toward the center of the room to separate them from the surround speakers and between the first and second rows. They also can double as VOG channels for Auro 3D that way. Front and rear height channels are mounted above the front L-R and rear L-R channels and center height above the center for a total of 7 height channels in my layout. I didn’t use active speakers for top middle and center height, too big for my ceiling, but I did use the smaller Paradigm speakers that most closely matched my actives (same tweeters):