Hear sibilance on Krall, Famous Blue, D. Fagen?


Hi, Folks,
I have made some changes to my system that I am overall very happy with, but I'm noticing some "sibilance" or harshness to certain voices and I'm wondering if I'm simply hearing some things I hadn't heard before because my system's more resolving, or if there's a synergy problem that has given me a tipped up "presence region." So I want to know if you hear these things too:

1) Jennifer Warnes on Famous Blue Raincoat, first track, "First We Take Manhattan:" I'm hearing an edge to her vocals... sounds like some sort of processing.

2) Morph The Cat: Title track; Donald's massed voices on the verses. How do those (highly processed) vocals sound to you? Breathy? Harsh?

3) Diana Krall, "Let's Face The Music and Dance" from "When I Look In Your Eyes." Very closely miked, but do you hear harshness in some sibilant consonants?

Trying to figure out if this is the recording or my system! Thanks in advance!
rebbi

Showing 2 responses by bill_k

Might be helpful to know whether this issue is source specific (i.e. CD, digital files, or vinyl only) or common to all sources.
Please don't take any offense since that is not my intention, but I'm afraid that you're hearing the limitations of your digital source components. I have tried for many years to eliminate such sounds from digital playback and unfortunately it's very hard and expensive to achieve. The distortions you describe are some of the typical shortcomings experienced when you compare analog to digital on high quality playback systems. I have spent more than I'd like to admit improving my digital sources and it still does not match the purity of high frequency reproduction (particularly a lack of sibilance) that I get from good LPs. I base this on several decades of experience in high end audio.