2. amps-preamps
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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
stehno
1,453 posts
 
Your erudite responses are appreciated. And I certainly don't want to be obtuse here. However, I do not believe that you have provided one real life experience where sibilance was present and then disappeared or vice versa.

In fact, I was at the Kansas City zoo today with my family. At one point we were in a large (approx. 13H x 25L x 18W) concrete walled room with an aquarium glass wall taking up about 2/3rd's of one of the long walls. As my wife was speaking to me from about 3 feet away and I paid close attention to her pronunciations. There were only 3 other people in this mostly empty room. Her s' sounded just fine. Both in the actual and the reverb. Just as I suspected. My wife's pronunciation did not change one iota.

As I stated in an earlier post. I ran a test (for other reasons) by taking out the amplifier's in-line power conditioner and ran the romex straight from the service panel to a cryo dipped hubbell 20 amp IEC plug and plugged it directly into the amplifier. The sibilance was very present and was the most notable difference. Enough so where I was anxious to put things back to the way they were. And I know how much the sibilance increases when I remove all 3 in-line conditioners since I did not always have them.

You guys can hypothesize all you want but I am not buying it.

Perhaps when Braab8 resolves his issue or begins the process of elimination, s/he will update this post.

Besides I already know I'm right otherwise I would have changed my opinion at least 3 posts ago.

:)

-IME
rives
953 posts
 
Stehno: I gave you one specific example. It was a Swiss Hotel Entry (I had forgotten the specifics before). It was modelled before and after and then actually done. This is one example. Peter has many more from Airport lounges to concert halls. This is not hypothesis; these are proven phsyics and can be calculated by the Sabine principles. Not only can they be calculated, they can be reproduced in real world environments. In most cases in small room acoustics (under 8000 cubic feet) sibilance is usually not a problem unless it's a very bright room, or the absorption and diffusion is completely misplaced. And I'm not surprised if you haven't come across this problem in person. I have--guess what--now that I think about it Bill E.s room has sibilance--ask him. When we finish with his room--it won't. I'm not going to say that electrical power is not important (it is important: I use dedicated isolated lines with balanced power), but in this case it is likely a secondary issue. In cases that you have been involved in, I don't doubt it has been a primary issue, because the room wasn't that bad. Having not heard or acoustically measured this room--I'll admit--I could be wrong, but judging by the description, I'd be surprised if I was.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Stenho - Not to prolong an agreement to disagree (or at least have a different take), but how far away did you stand from the other person talking when you made your observations? You would have had to be far enough away for the room sound to increase its percentage of the perceived total relative to the direct sound in order to experience a degradation in intelligibility - and also don't forget that there was the visual cue of watching the other person speak.
cdc
1,773 posts
 
Hi Stehno, if your power conditioning has helped your system, that is great. It simply does not in mine. Based on sound quality, a dedicated power circuit has no effect on my enjoyment of my system.
I do not know why you think the light bulb issue was "theoretical". It was not. It was never stated as theoretical.
Your comments got me to compare my dedicated circuit. Something I never did before. Case "A" was on the dedicated circuit. Case "B" was the system running through 20 feet of orange extension cord into the same circuit as my refrigerator. This is the noisiest circuit I have.
I played vocal, high sibliant, medium sibilant, low sibilant, acoustic, and high frequency energy songs. There was no difference between "A" and "B" in any of them. Neither to me or my girlfriend "Miss Golden Ears".

Your mileage may vary.
stehno
1,453 posts
 
Cdc, as I recall above, you provided one real life situation, however out of the ordinary it was when your light bulb blew and caused affects to occur on other circuits. And I believe the rest you mentioned was hypothetical.

Nevertheless, based on your post above, it sounds as though you have only one dedicated circuit/line for all components.

I used to have all my equipment on one dedicated 20 amp line and at that time I did notice any real difference from the components being plugged into several 15 amp non-dedicated lines.

Of course that was also one or two system upgrades ago.

But even with the dedicated lines, I do not recall hearing any serious improvement pertaining to sibilance (the topic at hand) until I started buying Foundation Research in-line passive power conditioners for each of my components. Which I purchased one at a time. With each new in-conditioner, the results were always predictable and noticeably better than before.

-IME
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