I wonder how many people suggested you buy expensive speaker cables or power conditioners. Glad you were able to wide through the snake oil.
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!
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@stuartk , this was an interesting read. I am happy for you that you resolved the issue. It’s interesting, because I’ve read other posts in other threads by listeners who found squares of concrete as a satisfactory way of elevating their tweeter height; I think I may have read of a reviewer or two talking about that. I am not questioning/doubting you at all; just noting that. I’ll remember it for my own purposes as well. My chair happens to put me at a height that my ears are at or maybe even a bit below my tweeters, and I can adjust by adjusting my slouch. Not too crazy long ago I was breaking in/auditioning a new pair of speakers, and I think it was a distortion test track on a test CD I was playing with, and I remember thinking that I heard the distortion more clearly when I was sitting up & my head was more forward. Which I guess should maybe equate to my hearing being better in that position? I played around with that aspect of listening for a little bit, but that was driving me neurotic and totally taking the pleasure out of the experience. Anyway, just out of curiosity, which speakers were you trying out that led you to solving the issue by removing the pavers?
As far as the above, not that it applies to sibilance, but back in the 90s, on the weekends when I was doing the majority of my listening, I had my system in the living room and I would be drinking and having a good time during my listening and I would frequently have it cranked up to earbleed levels; in the living room it would sound pretty dirty at those levels, but when I would go out to the backporch where I was barbecuing, it still seemed LOUD, but I thought it sounded pretty good from back there. (Now my system is in a smaller dedicated back bedroom, and the way I listen is considerably different.)
+1 on that.
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I think we can all agree, given the OP’s evidence, that the single one entity causing sibilance, was the use of concrete pavers under the speaker stands. If that is the case, then some quality of the installation must be responsible. I have my own speculations, but does anyone have any specific, um, concrete explanation as to the cause of this effect? I’d love the opportunity to be on-site to find the answer. |
I'd rather not disclose the make/model of the speakers. They are very highly regarded, as is their builder and I have no desire to raise any doubts about either. Based on what I've read, I'm very much an outlier in terms of how they sounded to me in my room. I don't know whether this matters but, due to weight considerations, I actually had two pavers, butted up against one, under each stand. The pavers were textured, so there was a bit of a gap between each pair.
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