|   20khz to 50khz upgrade | twhaase
Jul 27, 2002 8:06 AM | | Ok, I am in an interesting situation. I am looking to upgrade my CD player, and would like to get a SACD player. The thing is, my spearkers are only rated up to 20khz, the SACD's have a range up to 50khz. I am going to purchase new speakers in the long run, but in the short run I only have enough dough for one or the other. (New SACD, or new speakers, but not both) I realize, that if I get new speakers with a rating up to 50khz, I will not be using them to their full potential with redbook cd, and if I get a SACD player I will not be able to use it to its fullest potential with speakers with a rating of 20khz. Catch-22.
As such, I am wondering whether one can upgrade the frequency rating of their speakers by upgrading my old speaker's internal crossover(s), or does one need to replace the actual tweater, midrange, and woofer? (In other words, buy a new set of speakers) To be honest, I am looking for a short term fix, eight months to a year, but be able to enjoy the benefits (although not to the fullest) of SACD.
I understand this is an interesting proposal, but just wondering if it is possible to do cheaply without having to drop a pile of bones on new speakers. Any thoughts, or site locations to order the crossovers I would be looking for? I would love to hear from you. Thanks in advance.
twhaase |
| Humans can only hear........ | _Luke_
Jul 27, 2002 9:00 AM | | sounds up to 20 khz. I don't know much about the ability of SACD to generate sound, but it seems the technology outstrips the human capacity to use it. If it were me, I'd stick with the speaks as long as you are satisfied with them otherwise and go for the SACD.
Actually, if it were me, I wouldn't spend for SACD either unless there was a minimal premium for it and I needed (or wanted) a new player anyway. In my uninformed opinion, SACD seems like another Betamax. |
| re: 20khz to 50khz upgrade | Pat D
Jul 29, 2002 1:06 PM | | Well, so far, despite the technical superiority of the SACD or DVD-A formats to the ordinary CD, we lack proof that one can hear the difference under blind conditions.
Suppose you do have a recording with ultrasonic frequency content on it. Technically, speakers with an extended high frequency response would be more accurate in that respect than those which cut off above the audible range, whether one can hear it or not.
It has also been established that a speaker can sound different when ultrasonic frequencies are present. This was tried in a sort of plug and play DBT audition. So this was a positive DBT result, but it still did not establish what was heard.
Other researchers found that what was heard could be accounted for by intermodulation distortion in the speakers. When one speaker played signals in the audible range and other speakers were used to play the ultrasonic frequencies, no difference showed up in the DBTs. They did spectrum analyses which showed the distortion.
Reference: Ashikara Kaoru and Kiryu Shogo, "Detection threshold for tones above 22 kHz," Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper 5401, May 2001.
The reason appears to be that the intermodulation distortion in the speaker was audible. Intermodulation distortion results from beat tones between two different frequencies. For example, 19000 and a 20000 Hz tones would produce a beat at 1000 Hz, which is the difference between the two original tones. One sees this sort of thing in amplifier measurements (usually extremely low for solid state equipment) and speaker measurements. If one uses separate speakers to reproduce the ultrasonic speakers, of course the intermodulation distortion does not occur.
I would suggest there is no reason to upgrade your speakers to something else unless you like those other speakers better. As for going to SACD, it will allow you to hear the relatively small number of reccordings available in that format. |
| re: 20khz to 50khz upgrade | Night Wolf
Jul 30, 2002 8:06 AM | | my cheap Sony SS-MB300H bookshelve speakers (3-way, 8" woofer) has a rage (stated by Sony) up to 50khz, and every Sony speaker with the new nano-something tweeter does, as to how good ot does that high, well i can't tell you (i don't even use the speakers they are waaayyyyyyy too bright even with trebal all the way down) and i am looking to sell them, they are brand new |
| |
