As I’d already swapped out everything else in the system with no reduction of sibilance prior to swapping out the pavers, I don’t regard this as necessary but thanks for the suggestion.
End of a long quest to vanquish sibilance.
As some of you are aware, I’ve spent nearly two years attempting to root out this annoyance, along with fatigue, from my modest system. No one knows just how frustrating this has been more than the handful of forum members who’ve provided numerous suggestions and insights along the way. You gentlemen know who you are and I’d like to thank you again for your ongoing generosity and camaraderie. Eliminating the source of fatigue (DAC) proved easier than the sibilance.
Having swapped out everything except speakers, with no impact on sibilance, I identified a pair of monitors that 1) I could afford, 2) are universally praised and 3) come with a refund policy. I figured this was the only thing left to try, aside from power conditioning.
When the new speakers arrived, I noticed they were a bit taller than my Silverlines so in an effort to compensate for the difference in tweeter height relative to my ears when seated, I removed the concrete pavers under my speaker stands. These are clearly visible on my virtual systems page.
When the new speakers were hooked up, I pressed "play" on my Jay’s transport remote and was immediately shocked. The sibilance was gone! I put the Silverlines back onto the stands and the sibilance was still absent. That was about two months ago and the sibilance demon has yet to reappear. Although I preferred the sound of the Silverlines and returned the other speakers, if it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t likely have solved this problem.
Perhaps my experience will help someone else. I was familiar with the maxim "everything matters" but I still failed to consider one "thing" that was sitting in plain sight the whole time I was tearing my hair out.
So, I will reiterate : "Everything matters" actually does mean every thing!
@stuartk I should have read the rest of the post before I questioned it. Glad you got it figured out. Sibilance absolutely drives me nuts. |
"I endured sibilance for a long time. I'm far more familiar with it than I'd prefer to be. It hasn't returned since I removed the pavers. Why would I want to bring the pavers back?" Too see if that was really the cause or was it some nebulous thing that somehow or other was failed to be considered and got changed as happenstance and it wasn't the pavers at all. I would be more inclined to believe that it was the physical height of the components putting the tweeters slightly off axis, or such, making a difference rather than the material that the stands are made from. When I make changes to a speaker, I will most typically go back and forth between what they are and what they were to see if the differences "stuck" or was it...??? |