I endured sibilance for a long time. I'm far more familiar with it than I'd prefer to be. It hasn't returned since I removed the pavers. Why would I want to bring the pavers back?
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 I just thought that it would confirm that it was the pavers causing the sibilance. |
@stuartk I should have read the rest of the post before I questioned it. Glad you got it figured out. Sibilance absolutely drives me nuts. |
"I endured sibilance for a long time. I'm far more familiar with it than I'd prefer to be. It hasn't returned since I removed the pavers. Why would I want to bring the pavers back?" Too see if that was really the cause or was it some nebulous thing that somehow or other was failed to be considered and got changed as happenstance and it wasn't the pavers at all. I would be more inclined to believe that it was the physical height of the components putting the tweeters slightly off axis, or such, making a difference rather than the material that the stands are made from. When I make changes to a speaker, I will most typically go back and forth between what they are and what they were to see if the differences "stuck" or was it...??? |
So, I will reiterate : "Everything matters" actually does mean every thing!
^^^^ Actually, everything probably doesn’t matter. And it’s probably just that mindset that led you to take two years to figure out something that probably could’ve been solved tith a tone control or equalizer or room correction (if not first simply adjusting the angle of your speakers). I haven’t read your previous accounts, but my guess is you were lead On wild goose chases, Such as fiddling around with cables and all that stuff? |
I experimented with toe-in as well as raising lower speaker and listening chair heights. While these experiments did affect sound-staging and tonality, I perceived no effect on sibilance. With the pavers out of the equation,using my original speakers, there is no sibilance and the highs are definitely not harsh -- that is one thing I cannot tolerate.
FYI, I did try an EQ.
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I’m glad you found your solution.
Coincidentally, I spent a long time experimenting With various heights and materials underneath my When making a platform for them to stand on. Changing the height and the materials underneath the speakers Certainly changed the tone of the speakers. So I ended up finding |
Having swapped out everything else with no change, the sibilance disappeared when the pavers were removed. I'm not an engineer so I can't definitively prove there is a causal relationship. All I can do is report what I've observed to the best of my ability. Thanks!
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"All I can do is report what I’ve observed to the best of my ability."
Then I would say make a YouTube video both ways so one can instantaneously evaluate the difference in real time. Then you can actually demonstrate this phenomenon for all to hear and remove any doubt. A YouTube video easily has the ability to demonstrate sibilance.
This is something else I do, even if the videos are just for my own use. As far as I can tell, there is no real way that anyone could do an instantaneous back and forth comparison any other way. Granted, people will not hear exactly what you hear in the room because they are hearing it over different monitors in different environments. But sibilance, or a lack thereof, will be clearly evident over most any system of any quality.
I’m not an engineer either. But I am a scientist. |
Your focus on "removing doubt" makes perfect sense, given your occupation. You mention the difficulties of "back and forth comparison" as if the difference between the presence of sibilance and its absence is subtle and fleeting. Given that you haven’t heard what I’ve been contending with, this is an understandable assumption but it’s also inaccurate. At this point, I’m not going to recount what’s already been described in earlier threads. The point of this thread was simply to inform those who’ve taken an interest and offered suggestions where things currently stand. Whether I’ve presented a credible "case" is another story, entirely. I’ll leave it up to guys to make up their own minds. What matters to me is that I’m no longer assailed by an incredibly frustrating and seeming unsolvable problem and that those with whom I’ve shared communications know it’s finally been put to rest. BTW, I’m an intuitive, artistic type but I did follow guidelines provided by an engineer regarding how to approach this issue systematically.
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For the sake of completeness, I can't definitively claim that the sibilance couldn't have been eliminated utilizing a different speaker while retaining the pavers. However, given that the sibilance disappeared with my current speakers, I didn't feel compelled to try yet another speaker, because I really enjoy the Silverlines.
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