hypersonic effect

is the controversial idea that the presence or absence of consciously inaudibly high frequencies has a measurable effect on one's physiological and psychological reactions.

The hypersonic effect is a term coined to describe a phenomenon reported in a controversial scientific study by Tsutomu Oohashi et al., which claims that, although humans cannot consciously hear ultrasound (sounds at frequencies above approximately 20 kHz), the presence or absence of those frequencies has a measurable effect on their physiological and psychological reactions. Numerous other studies have contradicted the portion of the results relating to the subjective reaction to high-frequency audio, finding that people who have 'good ears' listening to Super Audio CDs and high resolution DVD-Audio recordings on high fidelity systems capable of reproducing sounds up to 30 kHz cannot tell the difference between high resolution audio and the normal CD sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. (wikipedia)

hypersonic effect, n.All

hypersonic effect