Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Sibilance - S's overstressed

Guys, I have recently noticed some kind of disturbing S's overstressing in vocals of all kind of music I listen too, sometimes more sometimes less. I have heard this phenomena is called Sibilance. It sounds like the singer is kind of wistling while saying words with "s" on them. I like the highs in my system a lot, but this... I don't think I like this. Any idea if this is normal??!!! I also posted this at another message board, and somebody suggested could be my room (walls windows, etc), or interconnects...

My system is:
RB-1080
RC-1070
RCD-1072
Axiom M60TI
Pair of SilverCats interconnects
10G Bi-wire shotgun SignalCable speaker wire
PureAV PF60 power console

People are going to disagree with me but I'd say it might be a combo of your room and the speakers. The metal tweeters and cones don't do much to help. Tell us about the room. ???

Below is a plan of my apt. My system is located in the living room, right hand side wall close to the windows. As you can see, my living room is quite large, in a concrete, high rise building.

i know this is off topic, but if its a highrise apt building.. then where does that door that exits your kitchen lead to..?

i have never seen apts designed like this with two entrances. just curious.

bigjohn

Let's not overlook the source material; there is a lot of popular music mixed for boomboxes that sounds truly awful on high-fidelity equipment.

Did you consider simply turning down the treble a couple of db?

That kitchen door leads to the corridor outside, and yes, there are two exit doors leading to the outside corridor: one from the living room one from the kitchen. The kitchen door is useful to bring in groceries without opening the main door, or to bring trash out, very convenient. 920 square feet for a one bedrom apt. is pretty good!

My Rotel pre amp has three sets for treble - off, 1 and 2 (two is the most treble) I keep it always at off, which leaves the original recording of the source.

i agree, extremely convenient. i have never seen that before. now if you told me your balcony had a water slide down to the pool, i might be asking for rental info..

bigjohn

Couple of apartments I lived in in Dallas had the convenience of two entrances...especially when one was in the corridor and the main entrance was around a corner on the right...

I believe it is also in response to some fire code...but I could be mistaken.

WhatFurrer

Hi Skerdi! I think you should get used to the sibilance. It's in your source material. They record it that way because the majority of people have LOW-FI equipment including hand held CD players. POP & Rock music would sound dull if they didn't pump up the high frequencies. Turning down the treble of HI-FI equipment doesn't cut it much, it's not the frequency covered by the tone control. Get a hold of some vinyl rock or POP Lps and you will hear that there is NO sibilance. OUR CURSE IS HAVING SPEAKERS THAT FAITHFULLY REPRODUCE THE SOURCE MATERIAL...NO MATTER HOW BAD IT IS!!!

If I'm off base with my thinking, somebody please tell me because I have the same problem with my Athenas powered by NAD.

P.S. My M50s for my Rotel are on their way!!!!

Funny for the water slide John, but hey, we have a big olympic size pool here located just in fron below my balcony. I am in 18th floor, and apart from the great view, I can see our pool as well.