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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
tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 

Pick any two:

1) Clarity

2) No sibilance

3) Low cost

Sibilance is not about the tweeters.  Maybe 30-40 years ago some speakers had hot tweeters.  Probably to make up for cheap lamp cord for wiring.  The hifi sound is about clarity.  Clarity in the highs and clarity in the bass.  With that comes the sss‘s and that drives me up the wall too.  With vinyl we have a couple of knobs to turn.  We can adjust the VTA to tone down the sibilance on vinyl, for example or play with phono preamp impedance when using MC cartridges.  Digital is harder.  Room treatments and speaker placement can help quite a bit.  Beyond that, it is the cable carousel or finding a better DAC or Amp.  Sibilance can be tamed but it comes with a cost.     

stuartk OP
2,391 posts
 

@liquidsound 

This is a particularly interesting subject for me, since I have been experiencing sibilance in one form or another with my last two sets of speakers.

I empathize with your scenario. Sibilance sucks. I'm also in search of a solution for this problem. 

@tonywinga 

  Beyond that, it is the cable carousel or finding a better DAC or Amp.  

Please define "better".

tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 

Better= no sss‘s.

stuartk OP
2,391 posts
 

@tonywinga

Yes -- I understood that much. ;o)

What I was hoping, given you knowledge, was that you might be able to make some suggestions re: brands/models/designs/topology or specs. Or is this too system/room dependent???

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,577 posts
 

Some designers can tailor the crossovers to lessen/eliminate sibilance along with careful driver selection. Others, like Daniel Emonts of Revival Audio uses his own proprietary formula to coat his dome tweeters to help deal with it as well. Lots of ways to skin this cat's hiss but in the end, there's really no reason nowadays to have to deal with it.

If one is experiencing a surfeit of sibilance beyond what's normal on a certain recording, then it may lie in the recording/mastering and you're stuck with it. If that's not it, then cabling and noise pollution can be the culprit. 

I can only remember one speaker I had that exhibited more sibilance than what normally occurs and for the life of me, I can't remember the brand and only that it didn't last long before I moved on.

All the best,
Nonoise

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