little fuzzy on the frequency!?

[lucasmusic]

I've noticed with expensive mic pre's such as Focusrite ISA 428, Universal Audio's 8110 and True Systems Precision 8; that they all have one thing in common among a wide bandwidth (ex. True Systems Precision 8 has a frequency resp. of 1.5Hz-500kHz). Some of the advertisements for these products use these as an advantage over other similar products. Is there something Im missing out here? I read the specs on my Digi002 rack and its pre's only have a freq response of 20hz-20khz! So does this mean when I record with an SM57 with freq resp. of 40hz-15khz, that I wont be able to hear the some of the lower freq response (40hz)? Is this a big deal? Someone told me human ears only hear 20hz-20khz anyway??

[Ravian]

Originally Posted by lucasmusic

I've noticed with expensive mic pre's such as Focusrite ISA 428, Universal Audio's 8110 and True Systems Precision 8; that they all have one thing in common among a wide bandwidth (ex. True Systems Precision 8 has a frequency resp. of 1.5Hz-500kHz). Some of the advertisements for these products use these as an advantage over other similar products. Is there something Im missing out here? I read the specs on my Digi002 rack and its pre's only have a freq response of 20hz-20khz! So does this mean when I record with an SM57 with freq resp. of 40hz-15khz, that I wont be able to hear the some of the lower freq response (40hz)? Is this a big deal? Someone told me human ears only hear 20hz-20khz anyway??

harmonics baby. harmonics.
in the expensive pre's you have transformers that can aperently capture more
high freq. your ears can only hear 20hz / 20hkz but it is said that you can hear the harmonics those pre's produce. not the actual 500khz or so but the harmonic folddown. on top of the 20/20 range. usely the high range produces a more open sound

[lucasmusic]

Thats interesting cause like www.earthworksaudio.com check out earthworks high def microphones that use as frequency range as wide as 9Hz to 40kHz on their mics; and on their demo cd, I could hear the difference easy! They say that we are able to hear beyond 20khz!

[Ravian]

Originally Posted by lucasmusic

Thats interesting cause like www.earthworksaudio.com check out earthworks high def microphones that use as frequency range as wide as 9Hz to 40kHz on their mics; and on their demo cd, I could hear the difference easy! They say that we are able to hear beyond 20khz!

wel i think they have been fooling you . children can hear up to 19/20 khz when there
around 10 years old adults can hear up to 16/17 khz if you are lucky.
you can test it with a signal generator, slowly sweep the freq. go as hi as you can.
and stop when you can't hear the signal no more. and look at the generator !!!
you'l be suprise'd. there are also web sites for testing your hearing.

ps: the speaker has to go as far as 20hkz.
and lookout for your hearing you only got 2 ears and they dident come with spares.

i think its the same trick like with the mic pre's .( harmonics ) they add more air to the signal.

[Kiwiburger]

20 Hz to 20 kHz is the nominal range of human hearing, at best. A lot of audio equipment claims to pass signal in this range - although plenty of audio gear, including microphones and headphones, cannot pass signal over that range. Don't try to test you hearing with anything restrictive in the signal path.

But there is a huge difference between:
A/ passing signal from 20Hz to 20 kHz at all,
B/ passing signal from 20Hz to 20 kHz plus or minus a specificed dB range,
C/ passing signal and sound good, free from noise, distortion, artifacts, phase shifts, etc

If you want to drive a car all day, everyday at 100 mph, do you buy a car that (according to the specifications) has a top speed of 100 mph? I wouldn't. If you bought a car that has a theoretical top speed of 200 mph, you would have much more fun driving this at 100 mph.

A preamp that can pass signal from "DC to light" as Mr Mackie used to say has a much better chance of sounding good over the important frequencies. In the case of Mackie, that was advertising hyperbole. But there are truely great preamps that can pass frequencies well above and below audio, and that translates into superb performance in the audio range. It's not hard - there are so many cheap radios and cellphones that handle radio frequencies with ease. So why settle for compromised gear.

But - as soon as you insert digital conversion into the equation, your bandwith is automatically limited by the sampling frequency rate, and the necessary filtering to make it work. But again - the solution is to pick a sampling rate waay above audio so it's not an issue.

The frequencies you can't hear may screw up the frequencies you can hear.

[lucasmusic]

found an interesting website that test this http://www.ochenk.com/entry.php?id=63
I could only hear 17, be careful some of these frequency sample were freakin windows media player out. lockin up