Power Conditioners to reduce Sibilance

Adamg, Before you invest in wire and power conditioners etc make sure you have exhaused your explorations regarding system set up and room treatments. Toe in is a huge issue for sibilence (or brightness in general). Many speakers are 'hot' when you are listening on or close to axis and need to be pointed straight ahead, or pointed so they cross over in front of the sweet spot (substantially some times). You might check with the manufacturer to see what their set up advise is, or identify your speakers and hope some one here is familar with them an can advise you.

You also need to be sure that 1st reflections points are delt with, that is floor, side walls, and if possible the ceiling. Just put some temporary stuff up and see if you solve your problem. If it works then you can seek a permanent solution. If not, then on to the next thing.

Let the B&W bashing begin.
I don't agree with the problem being casued by B&W speakers.
These speakers are revealing, that's all. That could be a disadvantage, but you really do want your speakers to be revealing, don't you. The whole idea is to match other components properly. Digital components cause extreme sibilance, not the speakers. Besides, B&W speakers like to be bi-wired, preferrably with a shotgun run of speaker cable of decent gauge in order to have as less impedance as possible. Matching cables both ICs and Speaker wire is a challenge. I would first look at wires that integrate well with your components and this way you will avoid all the brightness. And also your room....Just my opinion.

Like I said it's your room - you know it and I know it. You can get conditioners, DACs, etc and you will have a great system - but flutter echo and brightness will continue to destroy the sound.

I just don't want you to throw all your money away and find yourself in the same spot.

Thanks again for all your responses. I toed-in the speakers such that they cross before the sweet spot and much of the brightness and sibilance have been reduced but not eliminated. I have plans to add some canvas prints behind the speakers in order to reduce the wall reflections. A RGPC power conditioner is something that I will look into purchasing in the future but clearly the room and the speaker placement was the large source of my problems. As far as changing cables and ICs, I use mostly XLO ultra and signature which are expensive for those who are still recieving education and I would prefer not to experiment with new cables. This is my 3rd pair of B&W speakers as a result of my dealers trade-up program and I definitely enjoy their sound. Nevertheless, the metal dome tweeters can interfere with the sound of the music by being overly bright and forward and require a great deal of attention in order to tame them. Once again, I appreciate all of the feedback as this was the first thread I have attempted on this site. Given the useful information I have recieved I will continue to use this as a resource in the future.

AdamG

While I cannot argue with any of the suggestions above, I believe there is no "universal" right answer as to what is causing the sibilence in YOUR system.

I have been chasing a sibilence problem in my system, taking the suggestion that room treatment should be the primary target. I chased my tail with treating first reflections, rear wall reflections, covering all windows, etc.

Then it dawned on me to conduct a simple troubleshooting test.....I used headphones hooked to the tape out of my ARC SP8 preamp. I figured that would take the room acoustics out of the equation. Put on a troublesome LP, and the sibilence was still there. So my problem in my system is somewhere between the turntable, cartridge, I/Cs, and preamp. It is not the room.

So, I'm now changing out I/Cs between the TT and preamp to see if I can solve this.

The moral of the story....I dunno....keep trying! ;-)