Reader Question: Is Wideband Frequency Response Important?

Wideband frequency response is an amplifier specification that extends high frequency response well beyond the range of human hearing, sometimes beyond 100kHz. The accepted range of human hearing is 20Hz - 20kHz, assuming your ears are in good health. So what is the benefit of wideband frequency response?

Music contains both fundamental and harmonic frequencies or tones. The fundamental is the lowest frequency in a note and the harmonics are multiples of the fundamental frequency (harmonics are also known as overtones). For example, the second harmonic of 500Hz is 1,000Hz, the third harmonic is 1,500, the fourth harmonic is 2,000, and so on. The presence of both fundamental and harmonic frequencies in music is what gives a musical instrument its characteristic sound. It allows the human ear/brain system to tell the difference between instruments and is an important part of the way we perceive music.

Read more about the benefits of wideband frequency response in this article.