Speakers and sibilance (1 Viewer)

[Dave_Whiting]

In most dvd recordings is there a natural amount of sibilance? What causes a speaker to have excessive sibilance?

THanks

 

[Chu Gai]

a lot of possibilities here but tell me, did you just get these speakers and what are they if I may ask?

 

[Dave_Whiting]

THey are aad c-series.
http://www.aadsound.com/Products%20P...ct%20page.html
c800 are the mains c301 center and c100 surrounds.
Could a poor quality interconnect cause this? I have a HK220 and a pioneer dvd-player. I use the digital out on the pioneer for cd's and dvd's listening. I don't know if I am just sensitive to these sss sounds and notive them more than other people. So is there sibilence in a majority of dvd's. I seem to notice it more on womens voices. THe speakers use a silk tweeter which is supposed to be smooth.

 

[RussKon]

my home theater consists of klipsch speakers. the horns produce a very clear and clean reproduction .....i have over 300 dvd's and i have not experienced the sibilence that you are hearing.

does this occur in your music listening as well?...if not, perhaps there is a problem in your center channel speaker and/orthe center channel section of your receiver....

 

[Geoff L]

Hi Dave

Well some speakers are much more accurate than others. Sometimes this is mistaken for ssssss sibilance. Great recordings sound fantastic but poor ones will drive you insane.

Also on the filp side, brand new speakers can smoothe out over time assuming it dose it on everything, (mine took over 150 hours to tame down and they use a silk tweeter as well). I hated them for the first month but in the end and they calmed down but still produce this on poorly recorded material...

Then again it could be you ears are extremly senstive to the highend frequencys.

On top of that, a bad crossover could be at fault.

Did you get to Demo all your speaker models in store and fully broken in,? and if so did they appear NOT to do the same thing?

If so, What where they driving them with?

Do they produce the sssss even at low listening levels on known good CD/DVD material?

Are you getting this on all speakers, the center mains and rears) or is it worse in anything particular. Center, mains, rears, 2-channel stereo ect...?

Interconnects might help take the edge off, but I am not a big beliver in this and would only spend the cash as a last resort. And only if everything else about the speaker I was extremly pleased with.

Very frustrating I am sure...
Geoff

 

[Chu Gai]

Forgetting for the moment about the silk tweeter thing, there are several possibilities.
First of all, we all interpret or consider 'sibilance' differently. If you haven't worked on properly positioning and calibrating your speakers, you certainly should get this preliminary aspect out of the way.
Recordings can certainly be a source of this sibilance.
Issues with your room, i.e. hard reflective surfaces can contribute.
Cables? Nope.
Now if you just bought these speakers and basically you're finding that recordings that once might've been pleasurable just don't cut it, I'd strongly look into returning them if you can. Sometimes it's just better to find something that's more in tune with what works for you. If your dealer or whomever you bought them from throws the 'you need to break them in more, then stop, find out how to return them and get your money back as quickly as you can.

 

[DerekF]

I'm reading this thread with interest, since my PSB 5T/9C combo, mated to a Yamaha RX-V2200 via Kimber Kable also carries a lot of sibilance--and it drives me nuts!
It's toned down a lot since they were new, but it's still there. I'm pretty sure a lot of my problem has to do with room dynamics, but for now WAF outweighs significant changes in that department :frowning: . Until I can get greater latitude in speaker positioning & room treatment, I have had to resort to *gasp* TONE CONTROLS!
The 2200 also has a CC EQ, so I am able to trim the treble a bit for the entire front stage fairly evenly--and since the sibilance varies a great deal from recording to recording & DVD to DVD, I've come to accept that the problem is shared between my "overly bright" system and poor recording on certain discs.
...but the other day, my wife mentioned putting up a rug/wall hanging because of what she called "an echo I can hear upstairs when we listen to music"...there's hope yet!

 

[Marc H]

I think it's the way the movie was recorded from my experience. Some do and some don't.
Like Derek, I'm using a Yamaha receiver, the RXV3000 and find the centre channel eq feature invaluable for that problem.

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Quote:

Look between 5-10kHz region ...

So try to use REFERENCED Audio/Cinema Material to evaluate your speakers.
FYI: No problems with my JBL S-26** / S-Center** and Yamaha RX-V995 or JBL NSP1*** & Yamaha R-V905 (authorized mail-order ver. of the RX-V595)
Subjective results are confirmed by the following Objective Benchmarks:
**Objective Benchmarked by HT MAG:
S26: L/R measures +1.7/-1.4 dB from 200 Hz to 10 kHz.
S-Center: measures +2.7/-2.0 dB from 200 Hz to 10 kHz.
***Objective Benchmarked by S&V MAG (Tom Nousaine):
Frequency Response
JBL N-24 front left/right.... 89 Hz to 18.9 kHz ±2.7 dB
JBL N-Center................... 89 Hz to 20 kHz ±5.5 dB
JBL N-24 surround........... 89 Hz to 18.4 kHz ±3.2 dB
Phil

 

[Geoff L]

Phil

Nice explanation and graph.

Woah:
Thats a nasty looking push at about 7-kHz just about straight up 5+db, holds, then pushes another 2db at 15kHz..

Metalica's high end should sound real good threw that Centers tweeter.
Call 911 his ears are bleeding...

TAD BRIGHT, I'd say... Would imagen that speaker would be very hard to listen to at higher spls for very long...

 

[Dave_Whiting]

Cheers for the info guys. So maybe I should play a refercence dvd. What dvd or cd's contain absoluty no sibilence. I would think dvd's and cd's without words with sibilence sounds in them. So maybe a better question is what dvd's or cd'ss contain no excess sibilence.