On 11/07/2010 11:30 PM, peiman khosravi wrote:
> Thanks jörn for your enlightening notes.
> 
> Firstly, the higher frequencies are there as the byproduct of certain
> FFT processes (e.g. spectral stretching). I am transposing or stretching
> the spectrum and so some of the lower spectral materials move up the
> spectrum. I could filter them out I guess but then why filter them if
> they are not audible.

i see. well, maybe do filter them :)

> One thing that I have noticed when experimenting with spectral
> processing is that very high frequencies, even if inaudible or almost
> inaudible can cause distortions in the speakers, and that such
> distortions are usually heard at lower frequencies as a sort of
> saturation or interference with a particularly unpleasant roughness. 

you mean high frequencies at very high levels (enough to overload the
amp), or even at low volume?

>>     or maybe you have power amps which are susceptible to hf oscillation
>>     (which might saturate them and then introduce audible distortion in the
>>     20-20k band). watch your level meters to check.
>> 
> 
> Could you expand on this please?

i've seen p.a. power amps die after starting to oscillate in the
ultrasonic range. only a month ago, a qsc amp died on me this way. it
had 3 12" monitors connected to it (and yes, it's being marketed as
2ohm-safe), and all of a sudden, its clipping leds went full on. funnily
enough, it even *created* a signal at its inputs - when connected to a
cheap small yamaha mixer, the mixer's master meter would max out (and
fall back to zero when the amp was disconnected, so i can be sure it
wasn't the mixer that generated the problem signal). all this time,
there was only a very inconspicuous hum to be heard in the monitors.
i was able to break the oscillation by removing one or two monitors, but
some permanent damage had been done.

now my uneducated guess is, if an amp-plus-speakers circuit is
susceptible to such oscillation, maybe excessive hf content triggers it,
and drives the amp into saturation. (even if it's not a runaway
oscillation but just long ringing at loop gains < 1.)
a clipping amp might produce undertones as well as overtones, so that
might actually produce artefacts in the audible range.

best,

jörn



-- 
Jörn Nettingsmeier
Lortzingstr. 11, 45128 Essen, Tel. +49 177 7937487

Meister für Veranstaltungstechnik (Bühne/Studio), Elektrofachkraft
Audio and event engineer - Ambisonic surround recordings

http://stackingdwarves.net

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