Most people
aren't aware of much above
16k, however the ear/brain is surely capable of
perceiving differences, so a
higher sample rate is going to sound smoother in
the way that faster film
looks smoother, the ear will perceive curves
rather than digital grainyness.
I don't think it's as simple as saying that smoothness
is related to higher sample rate. I think that the way
in which we perceive music is related to distortions
introduced by the signal processing path and the
amount of detail which we can resove.
There's certainly some evidence in favour of
that,
but consider this
counter-argument:
A 'grainy' signal could be regarded as the sum of a
perfect signal plus
a small distortion signal. If you can demonstrate
that the
distortion signal is inaudible then arguably it also
doesn't have an
audible effect whan added to a sound that is
audible. In fact the well
known auditory phenomenon of masking shows the
reverse: a
sound that by istelf *is* audible can be rendered
inaudible in the
presence of a simultaneous louder sound.
But what about effects such as stochastic resonance?
Add a (miniscule) amount of distortion and we hear
more of the music. Perhaps this is why some people
like the "sound" of DSD.
Greg
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