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In Reply to: RE: Distortion and frequency response are good starting points posted by Ralph on May 22, 2025 at 11:14:00:
Inspired by some conversations here, last year I read a book on hearing psychology. I was particularly interested about masking and it was covered but not specifically about how low harmonics might mask high order ones. It would be really interesting to quantify the effectHere's a thought experiment: a 1kHz signal generates 1% second harmonic as well as all the harmonics above that and we suppose that the second harmonic is large enough in amplitude to mask the fifth harmonic. Whatever that amplitude difference, they are separated in frequency by 3kHz. But, the fundamental is only 4kHz away and it is 40dB larger than the second harmonic. It seems more likely that the fundamental would mask more?
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Follow Ups
- RE: Distortion and frequency response are good starting points - 13th Duke of Wymbourne 05/23/2518:11:01 05/23/25 (12)
- RE: Distortion and frequency response are good starting points - Ralph 10:46:12 05/27/25 (10)
- RE: Distortion and frequency response are good starting points - morricab 12:32:27 06/1/25 (1)
- Correct. - Ralph 08:22:36 06/2/25 (0)
- Pedantically, our ears use the pressure of the sound to sense the sound pressure - 13th Duke of Wymbourne 16:54:56 05/29/25 (7)
- Its easy to show that higher ordered harmonics are what the ear uses - Ralph 08:26:40 05/30/25 (6)
- RE: Its easy to show that higher ordered harmonics are what the ear uses - morricab 12:36:12 06/1/25 (3)
- :) so which is it? - Ralph 08:21:22 06/2/25 (2)
- RE: :) so which is it? - morricab 07:50:41 06/5/25 (1)
- You misread my prior post. Please go back and read it again. nt - Ralph 09:12:14 06/20/25 (0)
- I retain my title as Most Pedantic Inmate - 13th Duke of Wymbourne 19:28:47 05/31/25 (1)
- RE: I retain my title as Most Pedantic Inmate :) - Ralph 08:57:38 06/2/25 (0)
- RE: Distortion and frequency response are good starting points - morricab 10:05:15 05/26/25 (0)