My understanding of sibilance is, that it might belong to the recordings, but when we use the term, we are thinking about too much sibilance, that sounds aggressive. And it mostly is not just stronger high frequencies. I think, it is a form of distortion and this can have many reasons.
I was strongly suffering from sibilance too, upgraded speakers (from electrostats to Living Voice IBX R3), my amplifier (now Lavardin ITx), my DAC (now Lampizator Baltic), my music server (now Innuos Zenith Mk3), my cabling (all Lavardin). Of course the jump from electrostats to Living Voice was a big jump as would maybe be with the bright Thiel, but it did not erase any sibilance. Just the presentation was a little easier to my ears, but none went way. And the same is true for all other upgrades.
What did a lot more in erasing sibilance:
- Additional carpet to cover more of the solid wood floor
- EM / RF treatment "voodoo" radiating Obsidian pieces and stickers on all glass (Vortex Hifi)
- Cleaning power ... and the recent winner for this area is:
.... A Power Distributor with an included "Firewall" custom made from LessLoss
.... And a "Humbucker" power cable, which eliminates incoming EM / RF made from the same LessLoss
Visit their website and you will find my recent reviews.
The burn-in time is awkward, but after 4 weeks I enjoy it all. Sibilance is cut down very low and the remaining is connected to the voices and not just jumping at me. And it has a lot more ... powerful controlled bass, fantastic soundstage, rich sounds ...
It worked great for me, but I have very bad power coming in and plenty of Wifi radiating into our house. So might not be the same for you.
The total of my EM / RF treatment and power improvement cost about half of the electronics, speakers and cables, and I feel, it was worth it!!
Sorry, that I moved the topic away from DSD upgrade vs. speaker replacement :)
I was strongly suffering from sibilance too, upgraded speakers (from electrostats to Living Voice IBX R3), my amplifier (now Lavardin ITx), my DAC (now Lampizator Baltic), my music server (now Innuos Zenith Mk3), my cabling (all Lavardin). Of course the jump from electrostats to Living Voice was a big jump as would maybe be with the bright Thiel, but it did not erase any sibilance. Just the presentation was a little easier to my ears, but none went way. And the same is true for all other upgrades.
What did a lot more in erasing sibilance:
- Additional carpet to cover more of the solid wood floor
- EM / RF treatment "voodoo" radiating Obsidian pieces and stickers on all glass (Vortex Hifi)
- Cleaning power ... and the recent winner for this area is:
.... A Power Distributor with an included "Firewall" custom made from LessLoss
.... And a "Humbucker" power cable, which eliminates incoming EM / RF made from the same LessLoss
Visit their website and you will find my recent reviews.
The burn-in time is awkward, but after 4 weeks I enjoy it all. Sibilance is cut down very low and the remaining is connected to the voices and not just jumping at me. And it has a lot more ... powerful controlled bass, fantastic soundstage, rich sounds ...
It worked great for me, but I have very bad power coming in and plenty of Wifi radiating into our house. So might not be the same for you.
The total of my EM / RF treatment and power improvement cost about half of the electronics, speakers and cables, and I feel, it was worth it!!
Sorry, that I moved the topic away from DSD upgrade vs. speaker replacement :)