Does treble response beyond my hearing matter?

Mapman, why? Even if I can't hear above a certain frequency, in the range that I do hear, wouldn't having a higher treble response add to "air" or sparkle? I think that is what Arnettpartnetrs was alluding to, or at least in part.

I'll certainly listen to speakers, but some that I am considering are ID. Some have great shipping/return policies while other are just fair so I'm looking for ways to reasonably narrow the field.

I wish I could find the link, but I was reading something the other day on hi resolution audio and it talked about why Redbook CD is more than adequate to exceed the human capacity for hearing. The interesting thing was that the high res media could include things behind the range of human hearing but in some systems it could actually cause distortion in the audible range. It seems that higher could do nothing if you can't hear it, but could add distortion within the audible range under some circumstances.

Don't worry about what you can't hear, just judge based on what you can.

Fin,

If the specs look good up to the limit of your hearing, you are probably in pretty good shape, no matter what might be measured beyond.

When I was young, I could hear test tones up to 20khz. Now, at 54, only up to about 12-14 or so. That's typical of how our ears age.

It can be a good thing though. By design, not much music occurs in the upper ranges of human hearing, but a lot of noise and distortions can. So not being able to hear up there can be a blessing. I find most music a lot less fatiguing these days than I did in my youth.

" I find most music a lot less fatiguing these days than I did in my youth."

Well, in my youth I listened to most things too loud and I often added more highs/lows. I used to think I needed to listen to rock music at concert levels. Now I realize that concert audio usually isn't very good and often is far too loud. Earplugs should not be necessary, for instance.

In the case of acoustic music it's better to listen at realistic volumes. That means the classical guitar or lute, for instance, should be dialed back until it's no louder than the real thing.

There has, a few years back, serious research been done - sadly do not remember where- which suggests that you do "feel" in music playback if information above 15 kcycles is missing.