From what I have read (but nothing "definitive" -- mostly forum stuff) ambient noise, drum reverberations and harmonics live up in the 13khz+ range. So while we are not missing any real music if our ears cut out at 12-13khz, we need that stuff in our mix to make it sound more full and "real" (I guess!).

Here's an interesting article on the loss of high frequencies in MP3 files: http://thesession.org/discussions/19642

By the way, the highest note on the piano is the C8 Eighth octave which is 4186.01 Hz (but the harmonics go on up!).


Now at bandcamp: Crows Say Vee-Eh @ bandcamp or soundcloud: Kevin @ soundcloud