Anyone have experience with using de-esser for sibilance in home audio system?

@asvjerry

My best, and best for the prognosis....Jerry.

Thanks!

@clustrocasual

Weiss makes a DAC with a de-esser in it.

Yes; I’m aware of this but based upon reviews, I’m not convinced I’d enjoy its presentation -- not organic enough, I’m guessing. If I could buy one and return it (without a re-stock fee), I might try it out.

@lanx0003

In my case, it appears to be gear-dependent.

So far, I’ve swapped out everything but the integrated, with no change. I’m expecting delivery of another, today, so we’ll see.

@mashif

It is generally around 7-8k. I’ve found that speaker height and toe in can make a difference.

I’ve moved speakers around a lot, with some difference but not really enough to matter. I haven’t played with height. Did you move tweeter higher or lower than ear-level?

@erik_squires

Assuming you DO hear it through headphones, then EQ is the right answer instead of a de-esser, compressor.

Thanks for the clarification.

@baylinor

Instead I use the Loki max eq. Not often but it comes in handy with poorly sounding recordings. If that does not help, it surely would be your ears and just like tinnitus, the best way to deal with it is to learn to accept it, relax and enjoy whatever sounds you can still hear. Good luck to you.

I haven’t found my Lokius helps. I find it hard to relax and enjoy vocal music when it’s marred by unnaturally emphasized s’s, t’s and p’s. If you can, more power to you!

@erik_squires

OP: A hearing test would be very helpful. In particular, it is possible you have lost hearing everywhere BUT the sibilance range. In that case, instead of lowering the sibilance you may need to raise the surrounding frequencies.

Important distinction! Thanks for this.

Correct, the Lokius is not an EQ but rather a tone control and thus will not allow one to hone in on the offending frequency band precisely enough.

@stuartk  Ageing can be challenge, no doubt.  When my hearing became affected, I cried.  But I have somewhat overcome the challenge by relaxing, enjoying the music, and seemingly forgetting about the hearing issue(s).  Mind over matter, I guess you could say.  We have to accept that we age and are lucky to do so.  The other option is not as good.  However, I did find that using a very good acoustic panel for absorption, on the wall and directly to my left ear, eased the sibilance by a good amount.  As an example/test, I also discovered that while in my car, and with the window to my left, the sibilance is rather prevalent.  But when I move my head back, now with the B-pillar next to my left ear, the sibilance is greatly diminished.  Thus, I added the acoustic panel in my house and found a nice improvement.  I hope this information is of value to you.  Best to you, and I hope that you can continue to enjoy the music.

You say that you hear the sibilance issue when using ear buds, so that eliminates the room as an issue. Sounds like you have at least two systems maybe three depending on where the ear buds are used. Assuming the gear for each system is unique to those systems, I think it would be highly unlikely that a different component in each system would develop the same issue at the same time, so though we cannot 100% rule out the gear I think the odds for the gear being the problem are very very slim. If you have tinnitus I would think that you would be hearing the hissing sound constantly all day long and if you are not, I doubt that is the problem. It could be that you have developed a sensitivity to high frequencies and this should have shown up in your hearing test and your audiologist should have discussed this with you if you were outside of the standard deviation for that portion of the spectrum. Also I think you would hear overabundance of sibilance when watching television and in conversations in general. As far as the reverse, where the sibilance region is normal and everything else is deficient, this too should have shown up in your hearing test and your audiologist would probably be recommending hearing aids, not to mention that the whole world would be sounding rather thin and tinny.

Is it possible to listen with other people to see if they hear the same issue? That would at least tell you if it was a gear or source material issue.

@mammothguy54

Thanks for the suggestion. Panels are not an option in my listening area.

@audiorusty

Thanks for your comprehensive response. At times, I do hear a slight hissing and have so for decades but I hear no sibilance when people speak. Nor am I aware of any other sort of distortion of everyday sounds. Watching tv and listening to instrumental music are sibilance-free. By no means does the" whole world sound thin and tinny" and the hissing has not worsened in the period of time during which sibilance has become an issue.

I only notice sibilance when listening to music with vocals. The rest of the track will sound fine but most vocals exhibit exaggerated T’s, P’s and especially, S’s. I’ve directed a couple other forum members to tracks I find especially annoying and they’ve heard sibilance in those tracks, too. They attribute it to overly hot recording levels. This may well be true but I find it very difficult to accept that across many genres, most of the vocal tracks in my collection were recorded at too high a level. That makes no sense to me.

I’ve swapped out everything in my system except for the speakers and the integrated. I just took delivery of a different integrated. I’ll hook that up tonight and see it it makes any difference but like you, I doubt gear is to blame. I don’t have another pair of speakers but as I mentioned, sibilance is clearly audible on my desktop monitors so I doubt it’s my speakers. It’s possible that a warmer, less detailed amp might be less annoying to listen to, when it comes to vocals. I’ll have to experiment.