Narrowing a filter’s bandwidth inevitably spreads the signal in time, harming timbre

Evidence

Any form of filtering which reduces the bandwidth of the signal will also spread it over a longer period of time. In most practical filter circuits these time domain effects are most pronounced near the cut-off frequency and become worse as the cut-off becomes sharper. Again, as in the case of filter shape, these effects can extend well into the pass-band of the filter. Note that even the notch filter has a time response, which gets longer as the notch bandwidth reduces. 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. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 2397

Categorization

• QUESTION: Which digital filter designs produce pre-signal artifacts, and could those be avoided with minimum-phase designs?