If you pick up an acoustic guitar (depending on the design of the neck) and play the top E-string on the top fret, you are playing B, at about 988 Hz. Some electrics even go a couple notes higher. A quick look at our specs will show that we transition to the littlest driver, the tweeter, somewhere around 2,500 to 3,500 Hz, and the tweeter specializes in the highest frequency range, up to 30,000 Hz in the SWB tweeters of our top of the line VS Series speaker models. Of course you would point out that a piccolo goes even higher. How high? The top note on a typical piccolo is a C at 4,186 Hz, but that doesn’t explain the need for more range. As a rule all musical instruments convey the fundamental tone AND harmonics of the tone. So if you play that 4,186 Hz C, you are also getting multiples of that frequency, at 8,372 and 12,558 and 16,744, etc. And there is the air noise from the person blowing into the instrument. Even the guitar’s top note of 988 Hz has plenty of harmonic content and even more if it is a steel string or electric. If you don’t convey these harmonics, you have “harmonic distortion” – and the real effect is a loss of airiness, openness, and clarity in the sound. Cover a speaker’s tweeter with your hand (avoid touching it) and you will see how dull the sound becomes. So is this top range important? Absolutely!
- Stephen Shenefield
Loading ...