End of a long quest to vanquish sibilance.


As some of you are aware, I’ve spent nearly two years attempting to root out this annoyance, along with fatigue, from my modest system. No one knows just how frustrating this has been more than the handful of forum members who’ve provided numerous suggestions and insights along the way. You gentlemen know who you are and I’d like to thank you again for your ongoing generosity and camaraderie. Eliminating the source of fatigue (DAC) proved easier than the sibilance.

Having swapped out everything except speakers, with no impact on sibilance, I identified a pair of monitors that 1) I could afford, 2) are universally praised and 3) come with a refund policy. I figured this was the only thing left to try, aside from power conditioning.

When the new speakers arrived, I noticed they were a bit taller than my Silverlines so in an effort to compensate for the difference in tweeter height relative to my ears when seated, I removed the concrete pavers under my speaker stands. These are clearly visible on my virtual systems page.

When the new speakers were hooked up, I pressed "play" on my Jay’s transport remote and was immediately shocked. The sibilance was gone! I put the Silverlines back onto the stands and the sibilance was still absent. That was about two months ago and the sibilance demon has yet to reappear. Although I preferred the sound of the Silverlines and returned the other speakers, if it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t likely have solved this problem.

Perhaps my experience will help someone else. I was familiar with the maxim "everything matters" but I still failed to consider one "thing" that was sitting in plain sight the whole time I was tearing my hair out.

So, I will reiterate : "Everything matters" actually does mean every thing!

 

 

 

 

 

stuartk

@stuartk ​​@nonoise @ et all......

Happy that the former had 'solved' his issue with sssibilancesss, but it does point out that 'what you hear IS what you hear'....until you change Something within the chain of your devices..........

And, of course, the space they're within...

And the old Silverlines sound OK now....?

Congratulations!  You've rewired your brain...
It's as simple as that...

That's why you need at least 3 pairs of speakers, 2 preamps 3 pairs of amps 4 dacs 2 phonostage 3 turntables and 5 sets of all kinds of cables!!!

 

It's important to realize that sibilance, and other distortions, are sometimes "baked in" to the recording. Nothing to do about this. 

@sls883 +1 I replaced my front coffee table with an end table by the side of my chair. Whatever works. 🤔

@steakster  +1

I can easily hear the "glare" coming off the coffee table in front of the listening position.  So that somehow disappeared into the garbage truck one day.

Shouldn't be anything between you and the speakers unless of course it sounds better to the user.  Not my experience though.

Now let's talk about wing chairs!

Regards,

barts