Well, I can't really hear those high frequencies--but I can perceive them. Everyone can! People argue about CD this vs. LP that all the time when they should really be arguing about the best way to capture and reproduce harmonics. Why? Because harmonics are one of the details where music lives, and we all know the :devil: is in the details! And what are harmonics? Well, they are how we can tell instruments apart.
At this point you may be thinking it makes no difference to CD's because you can still tell an oboe apart from a clarinet or a guitar apart from a fiddle. And you'd be right; except that when you change the conversation to ultimate sound quality, you now want to be able to tell one violin apart from another. So let the discussion begin! Do you think this can of worms holds any water? Why or why not? As source for thought I cite two references:
Reference #1 (paraphrased excerpt):
"A pure note consisting entirely of one frequency will sound boring. The harmonics are missing. Harmonics are integer multiples of the fundamental frequency. The first harmonic is the fundamental frequency, 264Hz for middle C. The second harmonic will be twice this frequency, 528 Hz, which is an octave higher. The third harmonic will be three times the fundamental frequency, 792Hz, and so on. The violin, piano, and guitar all produce sounds by vibrating strings. Playing the same note, say middle C, will produce a tone with a fundamental frequency of 264 cycles per second. Yet all three instruments sound different because they have different harmonics. The amount of each harmonic present is what gives each musical instrument its own unique sound. A well made instrument will sound richer than a poorly made one because it will have better harmonics. An instrument with no harmonics will sound like a tuning fork with only one fundamental frequency present."
Reference #2 (paraphrased excerpt:)
Section X. Significance of the results
"Given the existence of musical-instrument energy above 20 kilohertz, it is natural to ask whether the energy matters to human perception or music recording. The common view is that energy above 20 kHz does not matter, but AES preprint 3207 by Oohashi et al. claims that reproduced sound above 26 kHz "induces activation of alpha-EEG rhythms that persist in the absence of high frequency stimulation, and can affect perception of sound quality."
Oohashi and his colleagues recorded gamelan to a bandwidth of 60 kHz, and played back the recording to listeners through a speaker system with an extra tweeter for the range above 26 kHz. This tweeter was driven by its own amplifier, and the 26 kHz electronic crossover before the amplifier used steep filters. The experimenters found that the listeners' EEGs and their subjective ratings of the sound quality were affected by whether this "ultra-tweeter" was on or off, even though the listeners explicitly denied that the reproduced sound was affected by the ultra-tweeter, and also denied, when presented with the ultrasonics alone, that any sound at all was being played. "
At this point you may be thinking it makes no difference to CD's because you can still tell an oboe apart from a clarinet or a guitar apart from a fiddle. And you'd be right; except that when you change the conversation to ultimate sound quality, you now want to be able to tell one violin apart from another. So let the discussion begin! Do you think this can of worms holds any water? Why or why not? As source for thought I cite two references:
Reference #1 (paraphrased excerpt):
"A pure note consisting entirely of one frequency will sound boring. The harmonics are missing. Harmonics are integer multiples of the fundamental frequency. The first harmonic is the fundamental frequency, 264Hz for middle C. The second harmonic will be twice this frequency, 528 Hz, which is an octave higher. The third harmonic will be three times the fundamental frequency, 792Hz, and so on. The violin, piano, and guitar all produce sounds by vibrating strings. Playing the same note, say middle C, will produce a tone with a fundamental frequency of 264 cycles per second. Yet all three instruments sound different because they have different harmonics. The amount of each harmonic present is what gives each musical instrument its own unique sound. A well made instrument will sound richer than a poorly made one because it will have better harmonics. An instrument with no harmonics will sound like a tuning fork with only one fundamental frequency present."
Reference #2 (paraphrased excerpt:)
Section X. Significance of the results
"Given the existence of musical-instrument energy above 20 kilohertz, it is natural to ask whether the energy matters to human perception or music recording. The common view is that energy above 20 kHz does not matter, but AES preprint 3207 by Oohashi et al. claims that reproduced sound above 26 kHz "induces activation of alpha-EEG rhythms that persist in the absence of high frequency stimulation, and can affect perception of sound quality."
Oohashi and his colleagues recorded gamelan to a bandwidth of 60 kHz, and played back the recording to listeners through a speaker system with an extra tweeter for the range above 26 kHz. This tweeter was driven by its own amplifier, and the 26 kHz electronic crossover before the amplifier used steep filters. The experimenters found that the listeners' EEGs and their subjective ratings of the sound quality were affected by whether this "ultra-tweeter" was on or off, even though the listeners explicitly denied that the reproduced sound was affected by the ultra-tweeter, and also denied, when presented with the ultrasonics alone, that any sound at all was being played. "