Sibilance from my SCM40s

[QuiteLikesMusic]

Some months into my new system, and it's sounding wonderful. Recently, by focusing on noise removal (ethernet, power filtering, grounding etc) I've moved the sound to a rich, dark, un-digital point of near perfection.

However, some recordings, though well-recorded and warm, still present some significant sibilance, particularly with female vocals. In fact, too many for it to be the occasional bad recording.

Granted, I have tinnitus - so this frequency area may well be my Achilles. And my room does have a hard floor and too many reflective surfaces.

Has anyone else had the same issue with ATC speakers, and any suggestions on how to solve?

Thanks

[SolarMusic]

With active ATC it depends very much on the DAC and preamplifier.

I have had an RME ADI Dac 2 FS on my SCM45A for a long time.

That sounded fantastic and high resolution. Sometimes, however, female voices also gave me a bit of a strain.

This increases even more when you are tired and the speakers are still cold.

I usually got rid of that with a slight treble reduction in the roon equalizer.

Since I swapped the RME for the ELAC DDP-2, the problem has gone completely. It sounds even rounder and the highs are there without being annoying. It now fits together perfectly.

i have a few absorbers in my room too to fight echoes in the room. You should do that if possible, that does more to good sound than cables etc....

[QuiteLikesMusic]

SolarMusic. Thanks.

I have already trialled Roon, and though I really like the DSP functionality it does come at a significant SQ cost. My Hegel H390, from what I've read in reviews, has a pretty good DAC, so I suspect I would need to spend pretty big on a better DAC to improve on it. It does sound like there are some good options out there, include Lampizator which have tube output stages.

I have also considered buying some cheap l-pad's and seeing how reducing power to the tweeter's binding posts affects things. If it went well I could measure the resistances of my preferred setting and replace the l-pad with two quality resistors.

[SolarMusic]

heard good things about Hegel.
i overlooked, your SCM40 ar passive ones

i have thin absorbers behind the speakers and a few on the sidewalls in mirror-position. A few behind me in the corners.
that made a big difference in sound. Its more precice with less room echoes.

also the hand-clap test sounds more dry 😀

[Nikhil]

And my room does have a hard floor and too many reflective surfaces.

Has anyone else had the same issue with ATC speakers, and any suggestions on how to solve?

Adding a carpet will clean up the HF for sure. I have hard marble flooring.
Adding diffusors to the ceiling also helps but I have not done this in my setup.

Hard flooring creates a high frequency "hash" that goes away when you add a carpet.



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[QuiteLikesMusic]

Thanks Nikhil.

I might have been overly critical of my ATCs. Maybe it's just me and certain recordings.

What's changed my opinion is going into the office this week for the first time in months. In my desk I have a pair of Sennheiser Momentum (closed, over-ear), and a Chord Mojo DAC. Both are commonly regarded as warm - and together for extended listening sessions, or cutting out the background office noise, they're perfect.

However, listening to a recording, with which I have particular issue (Riverside by Agnes Obel), revealed the same obvious sibilance.

Looks like I'm just going to have to "tough it out" :-)

[Nikhil]

Great to hear that you have that sorted.
One thing with ATCs is for sure ... you will hear the truth!



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[Bulldog]

My ATCs are ruthless in revealing recording anomalies. In saying that, with my ATCs I have discovered hidden gems in my collection which I previously thought were mediocre.

[QuiteLikesMusic]

An update from me on this.

I fixed the issue. It wasn't the ATCs (as if....), nor the room - though I'm sure I could make many marriage-altering changes to the lounge in the cause of my hifi. But I won't.

What fixed it was overhauling the ethernet stage of my streaming setup - the feed to my Innuos Zenith Mk3. I already had my Innuos with a ridiculously expensive USB cable or two, and also Innuos's Phoenix USB regenerator before my Hegel amp (inc DAC). I had read that the ethernet feed to the streamer is as critical, if not more so. However, as I'd already spent hard lucre on re-clocking the streamer's USB output it made no sense to have to the same before the streamer.

Anyhow, I saw an Uptone EtherRegen on eBay, bought it - and wow! Like night and day, it was. What had become a hard, digital, sibilant sound was now rich, detailed, textured and musical. Adding more to the EtherRegen's "ecosystem", such as decent LPS and AfterDark clock, has improved it far further. The addition of a 10MHz clock was a real shock. It cost double what the EtherRegen did, but now I wish I'd spent more. That 10Hz phase noise offset is the critical metric.

It does seem that with digital, as with analogue, the signal is fickle. And improvements to it aren't binary. You can continue to reduce the many forms of noise which exist - though much will be dependent on your DAC.

And now, with a very decent source in place my ATCs are wonderful. So glad I bought them.

[Bulldog]

I've had bad experiences with streaming music - compounded by poor and unreliable internet. I've returned to mainly vinyl and CDs as my main musical sources. I'm glad you've sorted your issues.

[Nikhil]

An update from me on this.

I fixed the issue. It wasn't the ATCs (as if....), nor the room - though I'm sure I could make many marriage-altering changes to the lounge in the cause of my hifi. But I won't.

What fixed it was overhauling the ethernet stage of my streaming setup - the feed to my Innuos Zenith Mk3. I already had my Innuos with a ridiculously expensive USB cable or two, and also Innuos's Phoenix USB regenerator before my Hegel amp (inc DAC). I had read that the ethernet feed to the streamer is as critical, if not more so. However, as I'd already spent hard lucre on re-clocking the streamer's USB output it made no sense to have to the same before the streamer.

Anyhow, I saw an Uptone EtherRegen on eBay, bought it - and wow! Like night and day, it was. What had become a hard, digital, sibilant sound was now rich, detailed, textured and musical. Adding more to the EtherRegen's "ecosystem", such as decent LPS and AfterDark clock, has improved it far further. The addition of a 10MHz clock was a real shock. It cost double what the EtherRegen did, but now I wish I'd spent more. That 10Hz phase noise offset is the critical metric.

It does seem that with digital, as with analogue, the signal is fickle. And improvements to it aren't binary. You can continue to reduce the many forms of noise which exist - though much will be dependent on your DAC.

And now, with a very decent source in place my ATCs are wonderful. So glad I bought them.

That is great feedback. I haven't gone the full route on cleaning up my ethernet signal but I did add an LPS to power my network switch which made a significant difference to the sound - at the top of the notes - at the leading edge. Can't go back now. Looks like I might have to look up the EtherRegen! In digital, reclocking the signal with a quality clock is almost necessary IMO. I use a Mutec MC-3+ USB and it has been a significant improvement to my setup.



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[QuiteLikesMusic]

That is great feedback. I haven't gone the full route on cleaning up my ethernet signal but I did add an LPS to power my network switch which made a significant difference to the sound - at the top of the notes - at the leading edge. Can't go back now. Looks like I might have to look up the EtherRegen! In digital, reclocking the signal with a quality clock is almost necessary IMO. I use a Mutec MC-3+ USB and it has been a significant improvement to my setup.

The version 2 of EtherRegen is expected in June, though demand will be huge. You should start to find 2nd hand instances of version 1 appearing soon after.

The Uptone sponsored area on AudiophileStyle has masses of wisdom, and the Uptone guys, Alex and John, are extremely responsive to questions. They're a very sound outfit.

[Nikhil]

I have been on the AudiophileStyle forums for a while. I had the USB Regen in my setup for some time as well. Alex was kind enough to send me a free replacement when the one I bought had a problem after almost a year. Definitely one of the good guys in audio for sure. However, I am a little reluctant to add another box at the moment but let's see if I change my mind down the road.