Hear sibilance on Krall, Famous Blue, D. Fagen?

Bill,
No offense taken!

Rebbi,

I have the Jennifer Warnes "Famous Blue Raincoat" and Diana Krall,"When I Look In Your Eyes" CDs. Neither of the two tracks you mentioned have sibilance problems when played on my system.

I found this doing a search on the Web.

Music Hall cd25.2 CD player; power cord

Folks,

As the owner of a Music Hall cd25.2 CD player, I read with interest Sam Tellig's review in the April, 2006 issue of Stereophile and Sallie Reynolds's review in the August, 2006 issue of The Absolute Sound.

In Ms. Reynold's review, the following sentence appears: "Then, on a tip from Roy Hall at Music Hall, I changed the power cord in the CD player to the Acoustic Zen Tsunami, and it instantly rewarded me with a wall of sound very like its name." In the Manufacturer Comments section of the same issue of The Absolute Sound, there is a note from Roy Hall in which he comments on both the Music Hall a25.2 integrated ampfilier and the cd 25.2 CD player as follows: "The power cords supplied with the units are not good enough. This will change in the future. If you really want to improve both of these units in all respects buy a good, heavy-guage power cord (preferably shielded). I don't think you need to buy an expensive one. Remember the golden rule of wire--'The more it costs, the worse it sounds.'"

Assuming that I, like Sallie, might hear an improvement with a new power cord for my cd25.2, and assuming that Roy Hall's advice about his own product is worthy of consideration (which I assume is the case), I'm wondering if you folks have a recommendation for a power cord that meets his criteria: (a) good, (b) heavy-guage, (c) shielded, (d) not expensive. It is hard for me to believe that given the mid-fi nature of my other equipment (Outlaw Audio RR2150 receiver, Monitor Audio Silver RS6 loudspeakers, etc.), I would want to spend more than, say, $100 on such a cord. (By the way, Ms. Reynolds notes that the Acoustic Zen Tsunami power cords sells for $350, which is sure to cause DUP to refill the cartridge in his poison pen.)

So...recommendations?

Stereophile

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Listening

Early on I threw Jesse Cook’s Gravity [Narada 63037] at the CD25.2, listening closely to his solo run at the climax of "Mario Takes a Walk." I was struck by a clinical vibe coming off Cook’s acoustic guitar. He sounded a little thin, even cold. At the highest registers I thought I’d caught hints of sibilance. Was this coming from the recording itself or CD player?

Soundstage

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When I first read your posted message I was thinking possibly the power cord and or the wall receptacle.
Yes, the receptacle can help control sibilance.
I would try a different power cord first. Then if that helps try a Hubbell Extra Heavy Duty Industrial Series HBL5262 (15 amp) or HBL5362 (20 amp) duplex receptacle.
This receptacle has non plated brass contacts and a non plated brass supporting back strap.
Hubbell PDF. See page 6.

For the duplex cover plate just a cheapo non breakable nylon plate. Leviton or Pass & Seymour.
.
Jim

Is it different vinyl vs. CD playback or same?

Rebbi, I don't have any of those recordings, but based on what Jim and Bill have said I would expect that the major contributor to the problem is the system rather than the recordings. Given that, and given that "jitter" (high frequency random or pseudo-random fluctuations in the timing of D/A conversion) is generally recognized as being a major and pervasive issue in digital audio, which can cause or contribute to sibilance, and given that jitter can be heavily influenced by the transport-to-DAC interface, a couple of experiments would seem to be in order (in addition to what Jim has suggested):

1)As an experiment, try temporarily putting a cheater plug (a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter, with the safety ground pin left unconnected) on the AC power plug of the DAC, and perhaps also on the AC power plug of the CD player you are using as a transport. That will break any ground loops between the two components, which can often be a significant contributor to jitter in a coaxial S/PDIF interface. The cheater plug on the DAC will also break any ground loops between the DAC and the preamp, which conceivably could also be a factor.

In saying this, btw, I'm assuming that you are using a 75 ohm coaxial cable, intended for digital applications, between the CD player/transport and the DAC. I see that your CD player/transport also provides a Toslink output, which would be immune to ground loop effects but has other downsides, including some that make it susceptible to jitter, which chances are result in its being the less desirable of the two interfaces.

2)If and as possible, try different cables between the CD player/transport and DAC, and in different lengths. It might even pay to try an analog RCA cable, although theoretically that is not ideal. What length will be optimal cannot be predicted with any certainty, as it depends on unspecified and unknown variables such as the risetimes and falltimes of the CDP's digital output signal. But odds are that either a very short length (less than 1 foot) or a fairly long length (5 or 6 feet or thereabouts) will stand the greatest chance of providing optimal results.

Hope that helps. Best regards,
-- Al

It might be a good idea for the OP to list his system. Also, what were the changes?