Comment by femto

Yes, though I tend to think of the reconstruction filters as being part of the recording format.

Here's an interesting article:

  http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=E5guAAAAIBAJ&sjid=d6EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3183%2C2664048

In 1975, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was using a head shaped microphone, which was presumably an attempt to reproduce the non-linearity of the ear. It would be interesting to do such experiments with digital sampling.

Thinking about it, if every person has a different non-linear response, in theory the only way to reproduce sound beyond a certain threshold of fidelity would be to reproduce the ultrasonic components, so each person would hear their own non-linearity. (That would be beyond what I can hear or care about, but it would be fun to play with. Beyond a certain level we also get to the point where we need to ask what it means to hear a sound.)