How Much of the Music Can We Really Hear?

For years, a debate among audiophiles has been about the range of human hearing and its importance to music perception. Scientifically we know that the range of human hearing is roughly from 20 Hz (ultra low bass) to 20 kHz (ultra high frequencies) and rapidly decreases with age (and exposure to loud noises over long periods). Indeed, the music on a compact disc is limited to a specific frequency range of 20 Hz to 22.05 kHz (slightly higher than the 20 kHz range of human hearing at the top end of the scale). But there are music lovers who believe that the human ear-brain system can perceive frequencies well above the established limit of 20 kHz. I am one of those believers. We may not be able to actually hear an ultra-high frequency, say 50 kHz, but since it is an harmonic or overtone of a lower frequency (25 kHz, 12.5 kHz, etc.) its presence is important to our perception of musical fidelity. This is one of the reasons that the Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) has appeal among audiophiles - an SACD has an upper frequency limit of about 100 kHz. Read more in my article about frequency response, harmonics and wideband frequency response and learn more about stereo specifications.