…in the forest and there's no one to witness, does it make a sound? We all know the answer to this question because we understand the mechanism of sound, but the old chestnut gets one to think.
How much do hidden sounds impact our world?
If your electronics pass all the details in the music to speakers unable to fully reproduce those details, does it make sense to afford high-resolution electronics?
I think this is the same question people ponder when contemplating the addition of a subwoofer. Most music has very little in the way of subsonics, yet subwoofers offer a presence that cannot be achieved without them.
It is the reproduction of hidden cues that can influence what we perceive: extended phase response can help the highs sound more present, quicker transients improve plosives, lower noise levels blacken backgrounds, subwoofers extend realism.
It is not always the obvious we should focus on. Sometimes, it's the hidden gems that make magic.
