Sibilance how do I get rid of it?


Hello
I am currently experincing a problem with sibilance in my system,I must admit I know that unless I set up a overly dampened ( lack of Hi's ) set up, I'm almost always going to have some degree of siblance,I listen to mass produced commercial cd's so I know that this is atleast 40% of my problem , and my listening room 26'x14'x8' is relatively live,,lanolium floors..no dampening,,etc,,
But somewhere in the back of my mind I hear "you need to do careful system matching,
My system consisits of:
Cal Aria MkIII CDP
Conrad Johnson Pv10a Pre
& Conrad Johnson PV 14L Pre
Llano A100 SS Amplifier
Dynaudio Contour 1.3 2 way's "GLORIOUS Midrange and Presence"
JPS Labs superconductor FX Ic's
Tara labs Time and Space with TFA Return speaker cables
Transparent Power Plus Power cord &
MIT run of the mil powercord on the Llano power amp
I have no power conditioning whatsoever except some hospital grade junction boxes in which I have the CDP & Pre's hooked up-AMp straight to the wall.
Now I have experimented with various IC's and speaker cable Discovery,Cardas,Transparent..etc
I don't want to address this problem thru cable choice
I have changed the tubes in the CDP as well as the PreAmps
the Jps labs provides me with the transparency speed and extended Hi frequencies,,and resolution, but with noticable
sibilance could it be the Ac line conditioning or lack of it that is introducing the stridency and graininess to the sound? if so where can I start?
What brand power cables offfer the best shielding or get's the GRUNGE out? I've heard good things about coincident
I knwo that I should ( and AM in the process of)addressing the room itself carpet is in order and some accoustic paneling to kill the early reflections,should I do this first? then get the ac conditioning? has anyone had any experience with Marigo Powercords, shuyanta, Coincident etc.
Please offer me your suggestions
braab8
Cdc, simply calling something a farce does not make it so.

The lights in any given room in my home dim for a moment whenever the air conditioner comes on. Even though the AirC is on it's own seperate circuit from the lights. AirC compressors/fans require substantial current. As does my 18amp tablesaw motor which is also known to dim lights.

I don't know much about electrical, but I believe each of the two phases/legs in your service panel has a copper bus in which all circuit leads are connected to. All the circuits on one leg are out of phase from the opposing leg. The opposing phases/legs are completely seperated thus far. But you still have half of your circuits sharing one phase. But in addition it is likely that your neutral bus is shared by both phases/legs and perhaps some to most or all of your ground.

The point being that there's an awful lot of sharing going on in the service panel even for so-called dedicated circuits.

The dedicated circuit is primarily for two reasons:
1. to maximize current draw for an amplifier as some amps require every bit of power it can get, not to mention an amplifier's anything but constant current draw from taking constant current away from your other compoents. For example: Some time ago, I took my pre/pro off the dedicated 20amp line where my 600 wpc@4ohm amplifier is hooked up. The pre only draws 36 watts of power. No big deal right? Putting the pre on it's own dedicated line caused the dynamic headroom of my amp to just blossom. And this was noticeable at fairly low volumes.

2. To minimize grunge and noise that other appliances, dimmers, blenders, microwaves, and digital sources inject into other runs off the same circuit spreading to your audio equipment which if there is any to be found and there always is will be amplified to some degree.

In summary, a dedicated circuit is not a complete isolator from whatever other junk may be running in the house. But it's as close as most can reasonably get. The only complete isolating strategy would be to have all audio equipment running from a second service panel which itself is connected to the transformer at utility pole outside your home.

-IMO
Natalie, Perhaps the best response I could provide would be to paraphrase Scot Markwell of The Absolute Sound after they dramatically altered the wiring, circuit breakers, etc. in room 3 at Sea Cliff about a year ago. Scot said something like: "Until now we have never been able to fully evaluate or review a product based on it's true potential. A statement both humbling and frightful."

And if you do the work yourself, your looking at a couple of hundred dollars to install dedicated lines, audio grede outlets, and circuit breakers.

Pretty cheap tweaks, don't you think? If only line conditioners and powercords would be so cheap.

-IME
I will throw my hat into the ring here to agree with Stehno, Bob Bundus and the other posters here advocating a look at power. Over the past two years, I have bought absolutely no new equipment, concentrating strictly on isolation/support and power tweaks (primarily power cords and receptacles-I already had what I consider to be a very good line conditioner in terms of the overall configuration of my system.) Even with very low cost equipment, the benefits derived from addressing these power issues are IMMENSE,leading to a tremendous reduction in sibilance and stridency and numerous other benefits in my system, and as Stehno has pointed out, very cost effective in the overall scheme of things. I do not have dedicated lines, but do utilize floated grounds in my system, decent (but not outrageously expensive power cords) and high quality receptacles-absolutely the biggest bang for the $$$ in my opinion). I will say that, unequivocally, you are not hearing what your system, regardless of cost, can do unless you address these issues.

As for Natalie, well, if I can't say anything nice about him, perhaps I should say nothing at all.
People you miss my point. In this persons case. Power is the least of his problems.
Yes if you can put dedicated lines in they are big help.
If you have your system to a high Level and new gear is not going to help much power is important.
But when you have possibly the worst source on the planet nothing the power can do to help.

With the Denon he has he could bhave a dedicated line all the way bck to the power plant and it would not help.

Guys and Girls you are all trying to fix the roof when the foundation is crumbling.
Hey Natalie: There's no mention of Denon in his post. And we're missing you're point? My experience with a very cheap (and I mean VERY cheap) digital source is that it benefits greatly from power tweaks. Here's a thought for you: Power is the true source.