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  • Re: Random/OT: Low sample rate audio weirdness/mystery

    From Tim Rentsch@tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com to comp.arch on Wed Mar 18 00:40:24 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.arch

    David Schultz <david.schultz@earthlink.net> writes:

    On 2/14/26 10:57 PM, Tim Rentsch wrote:

    David Schultz <david.schultz@earthlink.net> writes:

    On 1/22/26 6:13 PM, MitchAlsup wrote:

    The timber of instruments requires phase accurate reproduction of
    frequencies up to at least 15KHz.

    Define "phase accurate". As in how much phase error at say 20KHz is
    acceptable to you. 1 degree? 10?

    Between 2 and 10 degrees, based on a rough calculation.

    And how do you maintain that through the signal chain? In, for
    example, speaker crossover networks.

    One way of doing that is to drive full-range electrostats
    directly from the output stage of the amplifier.

    A big panel launching a wave front at you. All with varying
    distances/phase to your ear.

    One of the main points of using a panel speaker is they produce a
    plane wave rather than a collection of point sources. Undoubtedly
    there are some second-order effects because the panels have finite
    size but for the most part the phase is uniform over a fairly large
    area.

    I love my Maggies but if I move my head even a few inches up or down
    the high frequencies roll off enough for even my old lead ears to
    notice.

    Magnepans and Magneplanars are okay. I didn't ever own Magnepans
    but I did own Magneplanars for a while and liked them. They weren't
    as good as the electrostats. I suspect the main reason for that is
    the much larger diaphragm mass of the Magneplanars, which causes its
    own kind of problems, including in particular frequency-dependent
    phase lag. I can say for sure that the electrostats were more
    transparent than the Magneplanars, even as good as they Magneplanars
    were.

    Regarding the high-frequency roll off - it's likey this does occur
    (high frequencies do beam after all) but in my experience it doesn't
    affect the listening experience much. Maybe that's because when I
    listen I tend to be stationary rather than moving. Also the ear is
    more sensitive to changes in phase than changes in amplitude.
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