In article , Don Pearce
wrote:

Played by itself, people couldn't hear the 'ultrasound'. But their
brainscans were different with/without it when the main music was
played.

So it seems possible that high frequency tones which are - in isolation
- 'inaudible' may affect our perception when they accompany clearly
audible lower frequency sounds.


I think a likely explanation is the simple non-linearity of the ear
causing audible intermod products when the ultrasonics were on.

Agreed. Which in turn implies that the sound *level* may matter. i.e. Any
such impact on the 'perceived sound quality' may only occur when the sound
level at the ears is loud enough. Which may indicate why some people notice
and care whilst others don't - even if using the same kit and having
'similar ears' in conventional hearing tests.

But to me this all illustrates the problem I found so regrettable wrt many
claims of 'cable sound'. Since none of those making the claim would take
the test, we couldn't find out if/when they were right or mistaken. No way
to sort wheat from chaff.

I'd have been facinated to get assessable evidence for the possibility of
some genuine new factor here. Partly to learn something new and
interesting. Partly to then be able to systematically engineer better audio
systems *without* having to suffer the many 'enthusiastic' claims made by
manufacturers for their very, very expensive cables - when something
cheaper and easier might do just fine without all the promotional blarny or
product cost.

Jim

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