-=> Quoting Matt Ion to T Owen <=-
 
 TO> That's precisely the point. Why do you think that manufacturers try so 
hard
 MI> to keep TO> the bandwidth wide? It isn't because we can *hear* those
 MI> frequencies below 20hz and TO> above 20khz, but we can percieve them,
 MI> and we can *hear* the artifacts of limited TO> bandwidth, such as the
 MI> phase shift that starts a decade above the low cutoff TO> frequency,
 MI> and a decade below the high cutoff frequency.  
 MI> This is a very good point that don't think I've ever considered before
 MI> (although I have always agreed that there are good reasons NOT to
 MI> limit bandwith to exactly within audible limits).  Given than a CD's
 MI> sampling rate of 44.1kHz allows a theoretical maximum frequency of
 MI> ~22.05kHz, that means you need a "brick wall" filter (a few dozen
 MI> orders for at least a couple hundred dB per octave) at around 20kHz,
 MI> and this causes hideous amounts of phase shift and other ugliness.  If
 MI> one can increase the sample rate by, say, a factor of four (to
 MI> 176kHz), the "steepness" of the filter can be reduced dramatically,
 MI> with a matching decrease in the problems it causes. 
I would be happy with 400kHz, and a 24 bit wordlength; that would
be absoloutely *pristine*. The brickwall filter does have its problems,
and while filters are needed, even with the analog repro chain, to guard
against oscillation, it isn't the filters (in analog gear) that I dislike.
What bothers me is the lack of "available" bandwidth in the repro chain.
A well designed (often expensive ) analog filter designed to limit
infrasonic and ultrasonic artifacts is fine (and required) as long as
the repro (and recording) chain *can* pass those out of "human range"
frequencies. It is the bandwidth itself, not how much of it we allow
to pass through the chain, that matters. Digital equipment simply needs
to have better resoloution.
 TO> AL-III?  Never heard of that one. 
 MI> Carver "Amazing Loudspeakers", their 7-foot-tall ribbon jobs.  Talk
 MI> about comparing  apples and oranges :-)
Ah, I have heard lots of praise for the Carver ribbon drivers, though
I have never heard a pair. 7 feet tall? What is the driver compliment
with those? I assume cone drivers for the low frequencies, ribbons for
the mids and highs....How many (if so), and placed how? Take care.
... Posted by the committee to bronze John Meyer.
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.20
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