Do you get the 20KHz+ benefit of music recorded with 40K mics through 20KHz speakers?

[mikeote]

Hi guys,

 

Do you get the 20KHz+ benefit of music recorded with 40KHz mics through 20KHz speakers ?

 

It seems to me like you still get the benefit as i've listened to music recorded using 50KHz mics through 28KHz headphones, comparing to the 30KHz version of the same mic there is a big difference.

 

Apart from EW / Tannoy does any one know which studio monitors go up to 50KHz ? Max

[Phil O'Keefe]

ADAM A7's go up to 35 kHz.

[Zooey]

It seems to me like you still get the benefit as i've listened to music recorded using 50KHz mics through 28KHz headphones, comparing to the 30KHz version of the same mic there is a big difference.

 

Do you happen to know what the sample rate was on the recordings you compared?

[IsildursBane]

You can't hear up that high, so your focus on 50K vs 40K vs 20K is a bit misguided.

 

The main "benefit" of having such an extended frequency response is that it generally means that the response of top-end that you can hear is fairly smooth/flat.

 

Frequency responses are generally listed having a range of something like +-3dB. If a piece of gear is described as having a response extending all the way out to 50KHz (which is only an octave above 25KHz), then you can be fairly certain that it's response through 20KHz is smooth. Whereas a piece that is only listed as going up to 20KHz may have a rather precipitous drop above 18KHz.

 

Of course, all of this assumes that the figures and charts are accurate and that the marketing dept. hasn't massaged things...

 

-Dan.

[Flogger59]

Digital recording involve the use of some quite severe low pass filtering to avoid aliasing. In a 44.1k world you have a 100db/octave low pass filter which really messes up the sound. In a 96k world the filtering is applied above the limit of hearing, and it's not as drastic. As someone mentioned to me once, "I can't hear 48,000 cps, but I can hear the effects of the filtering at 7k."