My opinion is that the behaviour up to 12 Khz is much more important than between 12 and 17 Khz and frankly above 17Khz it is mostly for the "bats & dogs".
All too often I hear tweeter grain and harshness from compression at realistic levels. Another issue is resonance from light weight materials that ring like a "bell" - this can be very intrusive as it is completely unrelated to the music playing.
Tweeter compression and ringing is all too common and it is this which causes a loss of "smooth grain free silkiness" at realistic "live" levels, IMHO. It is one of the principle reasons that many high end systmes are "highly resolving but fatiguing" or have "etched" sound - and just don't sound natural in the way electrostats do.
In short, I do not see it as a high frequency extension issue at all. This is unfortunate for most people who tend to buy on "specs" and manufacturers that put too much money into high cost impressive extension tweeters instead of improving other areas of their designs. I am old school though - so feel free to diagree.
All too often I hear tweeter grain and harshness from compression at realistic levels. Another issue is resonance from light weight materials that ring like a "bell" - this can be very intrusive as it is completely unrelated to the music playing.
Tweeter compression and ringing is all too common and it is this which causes a loss of "smooth grain free silkiness" at realistic "live" levels, IMHO. It is one of the principle reasons that many high end systmes are "highly resolving but fatiguing" or have "etched" sound - and just don't sound natural in the way electrostats do.
In short, I do not see it as a high frequency extension issue at all. This is unfortunate for most people who tend to buy on "specs" and manufacturers that put too much money into high cost impressive extension tweeters instead of improving other areas of their designs. I am old school though - so feel free to diagree.