question about sibilance

I am confused about sibilance. Is it caused by the microphone, the way a cd was made, the electronics, or the speakers.

I occasionally hear it on my speakers on some cds, so I assume it is on the cd. Other cds with female vocals don't have any at all. Yet when you read speaker reviews they say to listen for sibilance. What if it is there? Shouldn't you hear it, if they are good speakers and reproduce what they are fed? Is it dependent on the vocalist's singing style?

thanks

 

Depends on lots of things, but your tweeters or the mastering of the CD being played would be the most likely candidates.

Cables, amps, preamps, etc *could* do it, but that doesn't sound like your situation. You're talking strictly about CD playback, right? Vinyl playback opens up all kinds of possibilities for sibilance...

 

I guess I should add that sibilance is inherent in some recordings. Not really much to do about it that I'm aware of without trashing the recording.

 

Arin,

I meant just cd playback. I have no phono, and rarely use the tuner.

It is only on certain cd's I notice it. It does not really bother me. I was more or less just curious. I do find it odd that reviewers use it on speaker reviews. Unless they somehow knew it was not on the recording.

Thanks

 

I believe that sibilance is caused by a resonance or imbalance at around 7kHz-8kHz.

As Arin says, sibilance is inherent in some recordings. If it's a common problem with your system then it's an equipment problem and, usually, the speakers.

I suppose that the only way to know is to listen to those same recordings on another, high quality, system.

 

I had an ECM set of Gesualdo songs performed by The Hilliard Ensemble, and the sibilants sounded like scissors closing. It was hard to believe this disc came from a label renowned for paying attention to their sonics.

 

Hey Gary, can you recall any particular CDs that seem to either have or create sibilance in your system? Maybe we can try to locate the source of the sibilance that way by determining if others here do or don't get the same results with those particular CDs.

BTW, welcome to the forum.

 

The one cd in particular that I remember was a Laura Cantrell - " Not the tremblin kind" - it was an Emusic download - so it was converted from an mp3 to a wav.

It is not real bad - but noticeable, and if I recall not on all songs.

I will try to remember on what other cds I have heard it.

Thanks