missing frequencies/sounds >16kHz using lame 3.99.4-64 Options

[shmick23]

hi,

i recorded some vinyl using Goldwave 5.25 under win 7 pro x64 and saved the files as a 24/96 un-compressed Windows Wave file.

i had a look at the frequency representation in Adobe Soundbooth CS5 and noted that the max. freq. attained was around ~27kHz (which seems acceptable given my sound card, cartridge and phono stage).

i then compressed the file using Foobar2000 1.1.9 to a lame mp3 with the settings:

Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Duration : 5mn 51s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 282 Kbps
Minimum bit rate : 32.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 11.8 MiB (100%)
Writing library : LAME3.99r
Encoding settings : -m j -V 0 -q 0 -lowpass 24 --vbr-new -b 32

having a look at the frequency representation again in Soundbooth showed a reduction/cutoff above 16kHz for certain sounds (not all).

Why is this and how (if possible) could I retain these upper frequencies ?
I assumed since the mp3 is a 48kHz file each channel should contain up to 24kHz sounds - from the graph it does, but only for certain sounds, and others are removed >16kHz

Also, is it a default setting by either foobar/lame to use lowpass by default ?

i've uploaded some screen grabs for visualisation:

[DVDdoug]

So, if this is a limitation in the LAME codec itself I can live with that - if the result is 'transparent' to my ears in real life i don't mind - i was curious why the cutoff occurs...

MP3 is lossy compression, it has to throw-away some information. If you "force" LAME to keep certain information (that you probably can't hear) it will have to throw-away some other information (that you might be able to hear).