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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: How to give bats a headache.
Post Subject: How to give bats a headache.Posted by paul williams on: 4/27/2006
I've never understood the continual need to get equipment to have ever wider frequency response, to me (but then I'm a complete technonumpty) this just seems to be an exercise in chasing numbers to impress those that are impressed by spec sheets. At a recent local exhibition focusing on the recording industry, one of the booths was showing the relative hearing abilities of various animals and humans (as they age). It also had a signal generator with digital display and headphones so you measure your own hearing abilities. As I was there with my two sons (8 & 5) we gave it a go.
Me (50 this year) left ear 12kHz, right 12.45kHz (OK so if I really ramp up the volume 15kHz)
My 8 year old son left 19.30khz, right 19.25kHz
My 5 year old son left 19.40kHz, right - got bored and left
So what really is the point in striving for ever higher frequency extremes? I would never spend the money on say, Townsend super tweeters, so I'll never really know if they have any benefit, even though some say they can transform speaker performance. But how about a pair of these Golden Sounds Ultra tweeters to sit on top of those super tweeters;
"These remarkable speakers, sold in pairs, operate at extremely high frequencies -- much higher than the audio band - actually in the microwave band, above 1 Gigahertz (GHz). The Ultra Tweeters are connected to the output terminals of existing speakers with speaker cables - preferably light, flexible ones - since the Ultra Tweeters themselves are quite light. Ultra Tweeter principle of operation is very unconventional. They don't generate sound in the audio band, or even in the 20-100 KHz band like super-tweeters, but function in the Gigahertz frequency band (normally used for satellite and microwave communications). Ultra Tweeters organize and improve the energy flow in signal conductors as well as the internal wirings of speaker drivers, making the audio system perform more efficiently and synergistically."
Now I have to admit that even though I'm sonically challenge in the upper frequencies, I intensely dislike metal dome tweeters (fingernails on blackboard) find the sonic signature of most audio equipment to be too prominent in the higher registers and "Elton John - one night only (the greatest hits) concert" to be the most badly played live concert ever perpetrated by so called professional musicians - and they actually recorded and issued it (Mercury 548 334 -2) but that's off topic. The thing is, if I'm loosing my ability to hear higher frequencies, which is the natural state of affairs, why am I so intolerant of most equipment. Thinking back over all the equipment I've owned in the last thirty years, as those specs have gotten better I've been less and less satisfied with what I've heard - especially speakers & to a lesser extent phono cartridges (I won't go on about CD's the format which has contributed to the 'general' publics inability to physically handle recoded media with any care and consideration). So if any of you more technically savvy individuals can explain the merit of producing really wide band equipment - I'm all ears. The only reason I could come up with was, that if you push the performance boundaries beyond the normal usable requirements then that usable portion becomes more controlled or manageable.
PW
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