sibilant

[mike67]

hi everyone,
i notice my aeon panel recently display disturbing sibilant with vocal /dialog which is very annoying. Many tell me is in the source but i am not fully convinced. The aeon had got a new xstat panel which i had just installed for 6 months. I am using a krell pre/pro and ayre power amp. Is krell bad for martinlogan ?

 

[johnwa]

I don't think Krell is bad for anything except for perhaps the budget. Sorry I can't help with the core question but I am sure one of our resident propeller heads can get you sorted quickly. This is an amazing crowd for trouble shooting and solutions.

 

[DrJRapp]

Sillabance originates with the source, it's usually the result of limitations of the recording micropone and is most noticable in female vocals with sssses and ceees. Different gear tends to empasize it's presence. Different speakers such as the Logans with hyperextended upper range will be the worst in many cases, but oftimes they reproduce the sillbance with more smoothness than other brands so that they don't "seem" as harsh. I have fount that I get differing sillibance effects using different ICs. You may want to borrow some copper ICs and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Rich]

I wouldn't say that Krell is bad for Martin Logan in general, but it is very detailed and this may be exacerbating your problem. Give us some more information on your setup. Which Krell pre/pro? What is your source component that you are using when you experience the sibilance? How is it connected to the pre/pro? What is your room like (size, shape, hard vs. soft surfaces, etc.)? If this is only a recent thing, what has changed in your system recently?

To troubleshoot, you could try to rotate some other components through the system (source, pre/pro, amp) to see if any particular one makes a big difference. Also, as suggested above, you could try some different cables. My guess is that the problem is with your source component or your Krell pre/pro.

 

[MiTT]

If it's something that you've only recently noticed and you haven't made significant changes to your system it may be as simple as dust on the panels. When was the last time that you shut them down and vaccuumed them?

 

[JonFo]

Sibilants are a form of ringing. This ringing can be in the source recording (mics have a problem here, and that’s why pro-audio de-essers exist).

If a source playback device has a nasty defect, it can cause ringing at vocal frequencies, but that’s very rare. More common is if the source is a lossy compressed track (like MP3), often sibilant ringing distortion occurs on certain recordings.

But, you also need to consider that you could well have modal ringing in the room.

MartinLogans put out a lot of mid and high-frequency energy, and they do it in a dipole (radiating front and back) fashion, so there are ample opportunities to created in-room ringing at vocal frequencies .

A quick test to see if the problem is the room or the source chain is to put some highly absorbent materials behind the speakers, something like a thick curtain (velour or some heavy material), and then play the same offending track. If the sibilants are gone, then you had a room mode, and need to change the placement, or better yet, add absorption behind the speakers.

Try that and let us know.

 

[mike67]

My room is fairly damp with carpet and auralex adsorption. I have the krell hts7.1 pre/pro connected with a siltech goldrich digital cable,to my marantz dv9600 dvd player. Also, i have all the source component connected to the ps audio ppp power plant.
The interconnects i used are all MIT copper balance.
I have tried swap power cord for the different component( audioquest, ps audio statement, van de hul, synegistic research , mit)
I wonder the new panel (smaller holes) could be the cause or i am having a compatible issues trying to match the logan with krell?