Your speaker preference:Bright, Warm, laidback or natural?

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I think Mash is right. We've discussed this extensively in the past and the Japanese demonstration (I hesitate to call it an experiment because it merely confirmed what had been known for a long time and proven again and again) that there is no audible difference if harmonics above 20 KHz are included or not. This conformed to all other scientific expectations based on waveform theory. On the other hand, you can feel the impact of vibrations below 20hz on your body even if your eardrums don't send signals to your brain so they aren't termed hearing.

The tonal balance shifts away from a higher percentage of high frequencies as you get further away from the orchestra because the direct field is relatively (and absolutely) weaker compared to the reverberant field. As I said in the other post, as the sound decays, the high frequencies decay faster than middle and low frequencies and the spectral balance shifts over the time we hear each note. Without the ability to accurately reproduce this reverberant field, you cannot reproduce the spectral aspects of the insturments as they would be heard in a concert hall either.

skeptic,
Oohashi's paper did not come to the conclusions that you state. I have that AES white paper in my library. His white paper concluded that listeners where indeed responding to the ultrasonic components in the music. We probably cannot hear ultrasonic signals, but perhaps we can feel them like we can signals below 20hz.

The rest of your post is spot on!

[Feanor]

I think Mash is right. We've discussed this extensively in the past and the Japanese demonstration (I hesitate to call it an experiment because it merely confirmed what had been known for a long time and proven again and again) that there is no audible difference if harmonics above 20 KHz are included or not. This conformed to all other scientific expectations based on waveform theory. On the other hand, you can feel the impact of vibrations below 20hz on your body even if your eardrums don't send signals to your brain so they aren't termed hearing.

The tonal balance shifts away from a higher percentage of high frequencies as you get further away from the orchestra because the direct field is relatively (and absolutely) weaker compared to the reverberant field. As I said in the other post, as the sound decays, the high frequencies decay faster than middle and low frequencies and the spectral balance shifts over the time we hear each note. Without the ability to accurately reproduce this reverberant field, you cannot reproduce the spectral aspects of the insturments as they would be heard in a concert hall either.

skeptic,
Oohashi's paper did not come to the conclusions that you state. I have that AES white paper in my library. His white paper concluded that listeners where indeed responding to the ultrasonic components in the music. We probably cannot hear ultrasonic signals, but perhaps we can feel them like we can signals below 20hz.

The rest of your post is spot on!

Gads! Skeptic wrote that in 2003.

It's long been my simple layman's assertion that close-microphoning, at least not done well done, results in a unnatural balance of frequencies that most people find disagreeable vs. live performance.

This has spawned the whole vinyl - tube - SET - full-range drive cult in an effort to artificially recreate the mellowness of live performance vs. indifferently made recordings.

For my part I still perfer neutral, transparent equipment that accurately reproduces the recording.

[E-Stat]

skeptic,

Yo, Terrence. Skeptic hasn't posted here in over six years since he was banned. Don't take it personal if you don't get a reply from him.

rw