You are entirely missing the boat here. It has nothing to do with
digital sampling. We are talking about analog bandwidth and
loudspeakers/amplifiers. Digital implementation will have to improve
to take full advantage of these analog improvements. It's just a
matter of time and they will as there, as there is a desire to be able
to reproduce live sound without compression or limitation as forms of
distortion. The manufacturers that are at the leading edge of this
curve are producing better products. Just because a 20k brickwall
filter cannot fully take advantage of it or someone cannot fully
appreciate it due to their hearing ability does not make it any less
an improvement. So in time, there will be better digital products as
well to complete the chain.
Don't assume that someone is always trying to rip you off just because
they would like you to pay them for their efforts. There are many very
smart consumers and for a maufacturer to get ahead, it is in their
best interest to produce a better product. It's capitalism and it's
market-driven as well as just the desire of the engineers to produce
the best product that is possible. There is also still something to
say about pride in one's work and in the benefit of one's product to
the general good. I'm not going to say that everyone will appreciate
it or care, but to those that put a priority on music in their homes,
higher fidelity and performance products will always be welcome.
There is quite a bit written on the subject of the effect of higher
frequencies on the lower frequencies (those that you call audible) and
their relationships when separated. You can choose to find the
resulting products useless to you, but not to others without similar
research and evidence of your own. It is interesting that you can find
an amplifier defective that will not produce clean signals above
20khz, but do not have a problem with digital devices or loudspeakers
that cannot. It would seem to be a matter of course that developments
to improve the linearity of the entire chain to be advantagious. We
could debate the relative value of the improvements "unitl the cows
come home", but the fact remains that they are just that,
improvements.
-Bill
www.uptownaudio.com
Roanoke VA
(540) 343-1250

"maxdm" wrote in message
news:Sn_yc.25653$eu.20164@attbi_s02...
The whole purpose of high sample rate digital is to improve the high
end (4 Khz - 18 Khz) that is audible to the human ear.

as sampling rate increases so does audible resolution in the higher
frequencies (dogs don't listen to records).

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that your amp/tweeter has to be
flat up to 50 or 100 KHz to fully appreciate the benefits of high
sample rate digital.
This is just hype that manufacturers are selling you in order for
you
to buy their amps based on published specs and not sound.

a .50 cent op-amp can have .0001 THD and 2 MHz bandwith and still
sound bad.

The number wars have created some awful side -effects in hi-fi in
the
past and every time a new technology comes out the marketing people
and sales staff take advantage of consumers that aren't prepared
technically to understand what is ideal and what is not.
learn to trust your EARS and you'll always be one step ahead.
It should be said that any amp that cuts off at 20 KHz has got to
have
some bad engineering faults, and probably is not going to be as
stable
and clean as an amp that goes to 100 KHz without resorting to
feedback
or trickery.
Watch out for super bandwith speakers and amps that MAY come out in
the future. Manufacturers will probably try to get in on the fad
even
at the cost of making inferior sounding components that reach the
high
frequency spec.