At the 75th convention of the AES in 1984, Dr. R. Lagadec presented a paper, “Dispersive Models for AD
and D-A Conversion Systems” [1], which discussed the potential degradation in audio quality that results
from the “pre-echoes” that exist in the impulse and transient response of FIR filters. This premise,
though of interest, apparently received little attention at the time. Now fast-forward to the mid-nineties, 96
kHz sample rates have become a reality, 192 kHz is on the horizon and SACD has been introduced.
There is general agreement that the evolution to higher sample rates offers an audible improvement over
either 44.1 or 48 kHz and, as with most human endeavors, we search to understand why. The obvious
and intuitive explanation is that the improvements result from the extended frequency range these formats
provide. However, it is generally accepted that the upper frequency limit of human hearing is in the neighborhood
of 20 kHz and both 44.1 and 48 kHz sample rates have frequency response that extends beyond
20 kHz. Apparently there must be something else and there has been considerable discussion, several
AES papers and magazine articles [2,3,4,5,6,7,8], since the mid 90's related to the audible improvement
of the higher sample rates. Much of this work has been a continuation of the work presented by Dr. Lagadec
in 1984. (It is also very interesting to note that Sony recently claimed on their website that it is the
removal of the digital decimation and interpolation filters, not the extended frequency range, that produce
the audible improvements offered by SACD over conventional PCM.)