2. speakers
  3. 189459-13640

ribbons vs domes and sibilance

I came upon a thread from the DiyAudio site titled "Can you have sparkling treble but without sibilance?" from 2011. The discussion is very technical and as such, completely over my head but one participant asserted that ribbons are far less prone to sibilance than domes. 

Here's an excerpt for the technically minded: :

... the middle of the dome basically flops about doing it's own thing at high frequencies as it's only very loosely coupled to the edge because of it's own less than infinite stiffness. Thus any distortion or resonances that occur due to the middle of the dome bending and moving in non-piston ways are not reflected back to the amplifier via back EMF... when the ribbon is only 8mm wide compared to a 25mm dome, there is far less narrowing of dispersion with increasing frequency than a dome. The directivity control is achieved with a wave-guide instead. This is why a wave-guide loaded ribbon can achieve an almost constant 90 degree horizontal dispersion from 2Khz right up to 20Khz - the ribbon element itself is far less directional horizontally at high frequencies than a dome, with the wave-guide then adding in a constant directivity control.

I'm wondering whether any forum members have compared speakers with domes and ribbons in regard to sibilance and arrived at any conclusions. 

stuartk

Showing 2 responses by mike_in_nc

mike_in_nc
1,124 posts
 

A lot, IMO, depends on the implementation. I have used speakers with ribbon tweeters and currently use speakers with electrostatic tweeters and feel that ribbons and electrostats typically have very clean treble, which makes them less prone to exaggerate sibilance. However, I would imagine a well engineered dome tweeter in a well engineered speaker also could be good.

To my mind, the frequent causes of sibilance are frequency anomalies from 8 kHz to 10 kHz. They may be caused by microphones that have peaky response or speakers that likewise have peaky response. (Many audiophile speakers have peaks around 10 kHz.) Also, any part of the reproduction chain that adds distortion to high frequencies will likewise cause sound that is similar or identical to sibilance. Finally, poor room acoustics if untreated will compound the problem.

 

mike_in_nc
1,124 posts
 

...and far too often I’ve read or watched a review of gear that sounded promising only to be disappointed at the end by the disclosure that the product is "somewhat forward". This seems to be a very common refrain, these days. Do most people simply prefer overtly bright sound?

I think many audiophiles do, especially the ones who aren’t into truly acoustic (unamplified) music. Often sound-reinforcement systems are ear-splittingly bright, and that can seem normal to some.

Another issue is that many hi-fi speakers have a rise in response in the sibilance range. (Just look at the measurements in Stereophile or Soundstage.) That treble excess can be perceived as more detail (well, in a sense it IS more detail), but the joy of that detail can be killed when the excess begins to irritate.

Finally, I suspect that sort of exaggerated detail is useful in selling speakers, because it makes them more impressive. (Many reviews say something like, "I heard things I never heard before in this recording"?) It’s long after the credit card has been charged that the peaky treble starts to rub the buyer the wrong way.

More to discover