[darkmighty]

If no recording equipment would pick it up, no human would pick it up either.

Quoting xiphmont

> Once you're driving air so hard it becomes nonlinear, thus introducing intermodulation distortion in the air, that distortion produces actual audible-range distortion products. And because the distortion you're hearing is in the audible range, a recording will sample and reproduce it accurately.

> You're hearing the audible _result_ of IMD, you're not somehow listening to the distortion curve itself.

[TillE]

> If no recording equipment would pick it up, no human would pick it up either.

Have you been to a concert? There's no recording/playback technology that can reproduce anything close to the sound of a full orchestra. It's all lossy.

[darkmighty]

That's an entirely different discussion having nothing to do with intermodulation products.

Have you read the article/quantization discussion on what is meant by lossy? If your recording equipment is good and your reproduction equipment is good, 16/44 is enough to reproduce the concert sound perfectly (as far as human hearing goes). What you do not experience is everything else but the sound -- the vibration of the super loud bass on your skin, the energy of the public, the beauty of the venue.