living sounds
Well-known member
But does it sound better at higher sample rates because of the added content or because of the converter working better at these sample rates? I've heard converters that sounded better at higher and others that sounded better at lower sample rates. I think it has more to do with the digital filter. We cannot hear anything beyond 25 khz, so the additional content won't be important. It will not show up in the finished product anyway, unless you release your music to an analog format or a high end format like SACD. But the artifacts caused by the digital filter in the converter will definitely be audible by humans, and I find them more harmfull to the signal than any content beyond hearing range taken out by an analog filter . We could use a switchable filter though, a simple switch at the input/ouput would be a cheap solution.
Biasrocks said:Wow.
Crippling higher sampling rates with subpar filtering, seems to me to defeat the purpose.
I don't want to get into a long debate on sampling rates, but I can't let this one go.
A short example
A crash cymbal has 40% of it's spectral content over 100kHz. Cymbals in particular sound like sushi(*) at lower sampling rates because of the limited bandwidth.
In my experience, many instruments just sound better at higher sampling rates, this is not subtle. 8)
Some background.
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~boyk/spectra/spectra.htm
A summary of this paper's findings. Column one refers to the figure showing the spectrum in question. Column two identifies the instrument. Column three gives the sound pressure level measured at the microphone. Column four gives the measured frequency extension: For instruments with harmonics, this is the highest frequency where harmonics are still present; for those without harmonics, the highest frequency where the sound is still at least 10 dB above the background. (See text.) The last column tells what percentage of the total energy is contained in the range between 20 kHz and the limit given in the previous column.
Code:Instruments With Harmonics Fig. Instrument SPL Harmonics Percentage (dB) Visible To of Power What Freq.? Above 20 kHz 1. Trumpet (Harmon mute) 96. >50 kHz 0.5 2. Trumpet (Harmon mute) 76. >80 " 2. 3. Trumpet (straight mute) 83. >85 " 0.7 4. French horn (bell up) 113. >90 " 0.03 5. French horn (mute) 99. >65 " 0.05 6. French horn 105. >55 " 0.1 7. Violin (double-stop) 87. >50 " 0.04 8. Violin (sul ponticello) 77. >35 " 0.02 9. Oboe 84. >40 " 0.01 Instruments Without Harmonics Fig. Instrument SPL 10 dB Above Percentage (dB) Bkgnd. to of Power What Freq.? Above 20 kHz 10. Speech Sibilant 72. >40 kHz 1.7 11. Claves 104. >102 " 3.8 12. Rimshot 73. >90 " 6. 13. Crash Cymbal 108. >102 " 40. 14. Triangle 96. >90 " 1. 15. Keys jangling 71. >60 " 68. 16. Piano 111. >70 " 0.02
(*)Sushi as in sounds like ass.
Mark