Single driver speakers

The show isn't over until the phase integrity sings.

I'd like to be remembered for that phrase. OK, I know it's my belief and my belief only ... , but oversampling filters (developed by others than me - and for a reason...) prove that we hear higher frequencies than we do ?

Utter rubbish! How can you hear higher than what you can hear when tested?

Sorry, but it isn't frequency, it's phase! The relation of phase at frequency extremes to the phase at mid frequencies, where our hearing is most sensitive.

Phase response is what we should be looking at, but where is it in the specs? Nowhere. But you can find it out easily - as far as the -3dB response goes that is.

Quite simple: 20Hz - 20kHz (-3dB points) equates to a phase response or flat phase of 200Hz - 2kHz (6 degree points). At the -3dB points the phase is out by 45 degrees, and 45 degrees is always half power, or should I say, what our ears expect it to be.

But then, in digital audio for example, the old "brick wall" filters would be multiples of 45 degrees out, but the frequency response would still measure -3dB at that particular point - totally unnatural.

Oversampling filters made it possible to place that problem far beyond that point in our hearing's range - the sound became more natural.

So are we phase integrity sensitive? It would appear so.

Having to turn the volume up too loud to get enjoyment is a sure sign of something being wrong. We should know that from the noise pollution that has built up in this world, eminating from "audio equipment" the manufacturers should be ashamed of. The authorities (customs officers) know them as boom boxes, because such products are useless at anything else. What a crap world it's turning out to be!

So Chris's ears told him the correct story. He can't hear what his HF unit is doing, but it's keeping the phase "up", and so sounds more natural, and natural is what we're designed to hear. Period.

Chris, what's happened to the picture of your little helpers?