Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners get ridd of the sss on the vp 150

I recently purchased the vp150 because i wasnt happy with my jbl s-center.The s-center was to quiet unless i cranked the volume. The vp 150 does not have that problem but it does have the ssss.I dont really know how to explain it except for every s is very pronounced like ssss.Is thier someway to fix this with the eq from my reciever.I have the yamaha 1400.I love the speaker otherwise but it's hard to get past.Seems worse on sattelite than dvd's.Any one else notice this.
Thanks in advance,
Steve

I'm not real sure what you mean but I'm going to guess and say you mean vocals sound like crap through the VP150 and are breaking up or something close to it.

If I had to guess at this I would say it sounds like the VP150 has been over eq'd on the treble side. If you can, turn off all eq functions to the center and try it and post back. I would also make sure just to be on the safe side that your crossover is set at 80 or higher.

the ssss you're refering too is called 'siblance'. (not sure of the spelling).

you might have the treble too high, as previously mentioned. to add to that, i find axioms sound best with the treble and the bass even at 0. you might also have something on or close to the speaker that makes it vibrate? (not sure)

If you ask me TV generally sounds like crap through the VP150. Like you said, though, DVDs are fine (I'll bet well produced commercials are pretty good, too).
Axioms tend to give you a very real sense of the size room a recording was made in, its acoustic characteristics, and any processing done to the vocals. Adds up to bad for most TV broadcasts, IMO.

Chances are the sibilance problem is due to the mix rather than the speaker...

Are you using the YPAO (Yahama's Pathetic Attempt at Optimization?) on the receiver?

Bren R.

Hi sbatch10,

Like everyone said, turn off any Yamaha EQ you may have applied to the VP150. Ravi is correct--it's "sibilance" that you are hearing and the VP150 does not add that to voices, spoken or sung. The VP150 is very neutral and will reproduce any frequency anomalies of TV microphones. Many mikes have "presence" peaks in the midrange/treble (some lavalier mikes are especially rotten), put there to add intelligibility when the dialog is reproduced over typically crummy TV speakers. A signal like that will sound lousy when played back over a neutral hi-fi speaker.

If the signal is high quality, it will be natural-sounding on a VP150. I've generally found the dialog recording on recent HD drama series broadcast in Dolby Digital to be quite good--I watched "Law&Order, Criminal Intent" last night, and the dialog recording was very good--clear and natural.

I also watched part of an HD opera broadcast in Dolby Digital on Sunday. The miking and singing voices were very natural. As an example of just how bad miking can be, I happened to have my CD mega-changer on Random, and a disc came up--"The Best of Stevie Wonder." I could not believe how awful his vocal sounded--extreme EQ had been appplied to make his voice heavily treble and aggressive. I went off Random and played other tracks on the CD, which varied a lot in sound quality from track to track.

Regards,