Sibilance and Some Lack of Clarity

[admin_exported]

Hi All

First time here and new to hi-fi so I am hopeful
you will be able to help please. Can you also bear with me as I have a
few things bugging me

I recently bought Tangent separates
from Richer Sounds on a bundle deal for £150 which included the CDP100
speakers. Basic speaker cable was thrown in and I bought some decent
interconnects for £20. I was happy with the bang for my buck, but I
noticed bad sibilance from some vocal tracks. This could be reduced by
putting the treble on -4.

In addition there was some lack of
clarity as the system seemed to struggle with complex/noisier tracks ie
Levellers. I put this down to "you get what you pay for".

Anyway the the CD and Amp went faulty quite quickly so I decided to do a deal on an upgrade.

I
changed the up to a Cambridge CD5 and A5 (all cables and Tangent
speakers being kept) I use the A5 with the "direct" button
applied....However...

1. I am still getting sibilance, nowhere near as bad but still enough to irritate, on the same tracks.

2. There is still lack of clarity on some "noisy" tracks although overall things are better.

Are my problems down to a cheap system overall?

I may upgrade the speakers to Wharfdale 9.1's...Do you think this will solve both my issues?

At
what price point do you think it is worthwhile upgrading speaker
cables? eg Can anyone honestly say they could hear the difference
between £1.50/meter and say £5.00/meter ?

I would be very grateful for expert advice

Many thanks
Mike

 

[John Duncan]

Several of us on here have much more expensive systems than this and still get sibilance - it can be a huge number of factors - cables, speakers, amps, bad production, all sorts of things. The only time I've ever heard it go away on one particular track which annoys me was with 8 grand speakers.

So to answer your question, no I suspect that the diamond 9.1s will not totally solve your problem (I had the same issue with mine when I had them), nor I suspect is 5 quid a metre speaker cable. That's not to say that they wouldn't alleviate the issue somewhat, and make your system a bit more listenable.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you John. This kind of makes me feel that spending bigger bucks could make me even more disappointed because I would have expected issues like that to be eliminated.

Best wishes

Mike

 

[John Duncan]

Nooby:
Thank you John. This kind of makes me feel that spending bigger bucks could make me even more disappointed because I would have expected issues like that to be eliminated.

Best wishes

Mike

Yup, been there - you'll never eradicate everything, but it's fun trying to get there.

But the weak link in your system there is definitely the speakers, and the Diamonds will most likely give a much better treble than the ones you have - take your setup to a dealer and try them on the end of it, you might be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks John, certainly makes sense. Whilst the baby Tangents seem to
defy their size an upgrade of speaker/cable would be within budget.

The
sibilance is definitely less with the CD5....so logically I thought
that maybe a £250+ player might get rid of it but life is not that
simple it seems.

Many thanks
Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Hi John

Back to this sibilance thing

Thinking on, I am now more puzzled as you inform me that many members with much better kit than I, get this problem.....and the causes are potentially manyfold.

Question...my cheap radio or my £350 stereo TV doesn't give the sibilance problem..My old "record player" never produced such sounds. ...I guess there must be some science behind this.

I would really like to try and understand this..any more suggestions?

Many thanks

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Which Tangent speakers do you have? If you are using bellwire I think upgrading your cables will make a big difference in letting the lower frequencies through, therefore balancing the sound.

 

[John Duncan]

Nooby:
Hi John

Back to this sibilance thing

Thinking on, I am now more puzzled as you inform me that many members with much better kit than I, get this problem.....and the causes are potentially manyfold.

Question...my cheap radio or my £350 stereo TV doesn't give the sibilance problem..My old "record player" never produced such sounds. ...I guess there must be some science behind this.

I would really like to try and understand this..any more suggestions?

Many thanks

Mike

Sibilance is generally down to poor handling of high treble - I suspect neither your radio nor your television have any of that.

Do you have (or can you borrow) any good headphones? A top end pair of cans will tell you whether the amp or CD player are at fault, since a) generally they're better than any affordable pair of loudspeakers and b) they can take your room out of the equation - lots of reflective surfaces can exacerbate the problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Octopo/John

Thank you for further input. I am using the Tangent CDP 100's with basic cable (not bellwire) but as John says I am suspicious of them so I will upgrade to the 9.1's soon.

Good thinking on the cans, never thought of that.

All the best

Mike