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Sibilance how do I get rid of it?

Hello
I am currently experincing a problem with sibilance in my system,I must admit I know that unless I set up a overly dampened ( lack of Hi's ) set up, I'm almost always going to have some degree of siblance,I listen to mass produced commercial cd's so I know that this is atleast 40% of my problem , and my listening room 26'x14'x8' is relatively live,,lanolium floors..no dampening,,etc,,
But somewhere in the back of my mind I hear "you need to do careful system matching,
My system consisits of:
Cal Aria MkIII CDP
Conrad Johnson Pv10a Pre
& Conrad Johnson PV 14L Pre
Llano A100 SS Amplifier
Dynaudio Contour 1.3 2 way's "GLORIOUS Midrange and Presence"
JPS Labs superconductor FX Ic's
Tara labs Time and Space with TFA Return speaker cables
Transparent Power Plus Power cord &
MIT run of the mil powercord on the Llano power amp
I have no power conditioning whatsoever except some hospital grade junction boxes in which I have the CDP & Pre's hooked up-AMp straight to the wall.
Now I have experimented with various IC's and speaker cable Discovery,Cardas,Transparent..etc
I don't want to address this problem thru cable choice
I have changed the tubes in the CDP as well as the PreAmps
the Jps labs provides me with the transparency speed and extended Hi frequencies,,and resolution, but with noticable
sibilance could it be the Ac line conditioning or lack of it that is introducing the stridency and graininess to the sound? if so where can I start?
What brand power cables offfer the best shielding or get's the GRUNGE out? I've heard good things about coincident
I knwo that I should ( and AM in the process of)addressing the room itself carpet is in order and some accoustic paneling to kill the early reflections,should I do this first? then get the ac conditioning? has anyone had any experience with Marigo Powercords, shuyanta, Coincident etc.
Please offer me your suggestions
braab8
fiddler
581 posts
 
I will second everything Stehno said. I think AC power is the primary source of sibilance, followed by interconnects and cables. Some seem to be better and worse than others. I just changed interconnects and the remaining sibilance that is not "recording related" completely disappeared.

Another tweak that will help considerably is to suspend your cables off of the floor. Made a huge difference in my system. I don't know what the dielectric of Linoleum is, but I believe it contains a lot of PVC (and who knows what else), so I suspect the dielectric of the floor is not helping the problem either.
lmasino
6 posts
 
In my case source components were always the biggest offenders. Swap your CDP with another one see if that helps. I am not familiar with your CDP, but rest of the system looks fine, so you may have to spend some $$ for the CDP to be up to the rest?
tnkujry
36 posts
 
With a checkbook.
rives
953 posts
 
Stehno did a remarkable job of describing how to fix an AC problem, if it does exist--and can often be the culprit. However, in your case, you need to concentrate first on the weakest link, and then work towards other areas. You may need to do some work on the AC, but you absolutely need to do some work on the room. With a very live room you will have reverberation times that are very long (RT-60), and you perceive them as separate distinct tones from the original recording--thus sibilance. All our company does is small room acoustics (by small I mean residential, not theaters or studios). You can try by just starting to get some absorbing material in the room, and you will immediately notice a difference (carpet, drapes have been suggested). If you really want to get the most out of your system--the performance that the equipment is really capable of, you might consider hiring an acoustical engineering firm that focuses on residential listening rooms(don't get a studio engineer to design a home listening area--it usually does not work out well--there are of course exceptions).
bstueche's avatar
bstueche
5 posts
 
I recently treated all connectors (power cords, rcas, xlrs, spades, bananas) in my system with deoxit and progold. I believe that it reduced the sibilance in my system. This is a quick and inexpensive 1st step to try.
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