2. misc-audio
  3. 191068-13640

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 OP
2,791 posts
 

@deep_333

Your interpretation is entirely off the mark.

Maybe consider reading things a little more carefully before jumping immediately to erroneous conclusions. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

philliprcook
12 posts
 

I’m an old professional audio guy who spent over 25 years fighting sibilance in the analog magnetic tape era. I must say this post brings back many memories dealing with high frequency distortion. Eliminating sibilance was probably the hardest thing I dealt with. It will be interesting to see if your sibilance problem was really resolved by removing the paver. I could be wrong, but a couple inches of speaker height shouldn’t cause the introduction of sibilance, especially after the other room treatments had no effect on it.Consider that instead of something being wrong with your system, it could be that something is just right to the point that you can hear sibilance recorded in the original.

stuartk OP
2,791 posts
 

@philliprcook 

I was thinking it had something to do with the pavers, rather than the height.

If I lift myself up a few inches from my listening chair, so that my ear is positioned roughly where it used to be with pavers in place, I hear no sibilance.

You are far more knowledgable than I am but I find it very difficult to believe that every vocal CD I own is equally flawed in this regard. 

philliprcook
12 posts
 

Is it possible then that since it's not height, it could be the increased rigidity of the speaker vibrating the tweeters? 

 

stuartk OP
2,791 posts
 

@philliprcook 

If the stands themselves had been shortened, then I suppose they would be more rigid. But that's not the case, here.  

Now the stands are in contact with the hardwood floor, which certainly has more mass than the pavers, if that matters. Also, I wasn't using single pavers -- I had two pavers butted up against one-another under each stand. Perhaps that was a factor? 

Perhaps someone with more expertise in such matters will comment.

 

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