2. cables
  3. 1293320167

Treble harshness - interconnects as culprits?

Hi,

I have good quality speakers, highest quality integrated amp,a high quality transparent/ very responsive dac attached to a sonos (via coax) which connects to my music library on a nas.

The system is very transparent and overall great ... Except:

I have recently observed some sibilance and high frequency/ treble harshness on mainly live female vocal recordings like 1960 Edith Piaf, but also on more recent recordings. Even at very low amp volume levels.

The only components of poor quality are my speaker cables and my radioshack analog RCA interconnects between dac and amp (only RCA input). Could the interconnect cause this? Or do I have bigger system compatibility issues?

Thanks!!

mizuno
bryoncunningham
893 posts
 
Some good ideas so far, but one thing that has not been mentioned is jitter.

Mizuno - You said in the OP that your dac is being fed by the S/PDIF output from Sonos. Sonos' S/PDIF output has a high level of jitter. Jitter results in frequency modulation that is audible as harshness in the high frequencies, which is exactly what you are reporting. If your dac does not reclock, then you are probably hearing the results of jitter. What dac are you using?

Bryon
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
what about the room (reflections), or the unforgiving nature of the integrated amp and /or speakers ?

i'm not saying it isn't a cable problem. the obvious solution is to try other cables.

you have not mentioned the brands you use for speaker or integrated amp.

perhaps a tube integrated in lieu of a ss ?

cables are less expensive, maybe, or as has been suggested , another dac, with a tube might be another thought.
facten
2,932 posts
 
asked this in your other thread on the same topic what speciifc equipment do you have? the other thread noted spendor speakers - what integrated and DAC are you driving these with? what speaker cables are you using?
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
move the speakers around.
mizuno OP
59 posts
 
Hi,

The dac is a w4s dac1 with upgraded caps ( same as dac2) and the amp is the lfd ncse.

I indeed seem to mostly experience the harshness on older live recordings, rarely on more recent ones.

First with the dac break in the harshness arose , and little by little it seems to become less prOnounced. Am about 150h in the process.
More to discover