Narrower filter bandwidths lengthen time responses and create audible artifacts

Evidence

Note that even the notch filter has a time response, which gets longer as the notch bandwidth decreases. Interestingly, particular methods of digital filtering are particularly bad in this respect because they result in time domain artifacts that precede the main signal in their output. These artifacts are easily unmasked and so become subjectively disturbing. Again, the effect is to require that the filter cutoff be set beyond the value that one would expect from a simple consideration of the frequency range of the instruments. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2414

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s earlier discussion of time-frequency trade-offs in filter design and masking; the audible artifact links to the masking chapters.
• QUESTION: Why are artifacts that precede the signal (pre-ringing) so much more easily unmasked than those that follow it?