[NoPants]

Hi this question has been bugging me for a while now, but I've never thought about asking this forum for input.

I was looking through the technical analyses of amplifiers at AMB's personal(?) site in order to contemplate building a millet hybrid max. Upon scrolling through his very thourough review I noticed the oscilloscope readouts and that frequencies up to 100kHz were used in the analysis. I know he put a disclaimer about the technical merits not being indicative of the sound, but does measuring frequencies you can't hear actively contribute to an amplifier's character?

I'm not trying to start flamewars or anything, I'm just mostly curious if most people characterize amplifiers this way when they refer to "fast" or "slow" transient responses. Does an amplifier's "fast" or "slow" nature at these higher frequencies necessarily indicate how it behaves when you can actually hear what's going on? Not to say that I'm not a believer of stuff going on in the audible range, but I'm puzzled nonetheless.

 

[cgrums]

I'll preface this post by saying that I'm no expert here but from what I've read an amplifiers high frequency performance, while not audible, does have an impact on the audible range. I believe mostly what you're looking for are oscillations/anomalies in the higher frequencies which have an impact on the audible range. What that impact is I'm not quite clear on but I do know there is merit to evaluating performance in the upper frequency range.

I'm sure someone more technically able will elaborate.

 

[Ahriman4891]

Normally the frequency response of a peace of equipment is given as (for example) 20 Hz - 20 KHz +/- 3dB, which means that there is a 3 dB roll-off on both ends. If an amp's -3 dB points are e.g. at 10 Hz and 100 KHz, then the audible range will be extremely linear, with no roll-off.

As for reproducing ultrasonics... I'd say most equipment has to get the audible range correctly before worrying about that.