Good deal! In the end it doesn't matter if you figured it out or got lucky. Glad your happy.
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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Thanks. It’s certainly a great relief and fine for now. It’s a novel experience hearing vocals without being assaulted by distorted plosives and ssshhh "trails". I do miss the bass response I got with the Aqua DAC -- the Hegel H390’s internal DAC definitely lags behind in this regard but then, the Hegel’s DAC is not at all fatiguing. l’ll demo standalone DACs when I can afford to do so. Yes! |
Can anyone comment on why these pavers (or similar) would be causing sibilance? I am always trying to improve the upper frequencies which sometime trouble me. I know my speakers are not traditionally fixed to my floor with the supplied isolator fee. @stuartk It would be interesting to see if a rubber or heavy fabric pad between the floor and the paver and the paver and the stand would also remove the sibilance. |
FYI, I have Herbie’s gliders attached to the bottom of the stands. Sorry for not mentioning this earlier. They didn’t inhibit the sibilance.
I’m very sensitive to high frequencies/bright sound. In my case, there was fatigue, but it was due to the DAC I was using at the time, not the pavers. Once the DAC was removed from the system, the fatigue went away. It was not a subtle improvement! Hope you're able to tame whatever is causing you trouble. |
OP: Congratulations! Glad to hear that the years-long mystery is solved. Yes, everything matters! As per the photos in your virtual system, the coffee table has a very reflective surface - not only for light waves - but also for sound waves. Changing the height of the tweeter changes the angle of reflection off the coffee table - as any pool/billiard player would appreciate. By any chance, have you ever put a blanket on the coffee table to observe if it affects the SQ? Also, adding a subwoofer (or two) will help to fill out the sound field. When I added LF, I was surprised how the HF became relatively more mellow - more integrated into the entire presentation. Enjoy the music! |
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