Hissing sound on S

Vemiant

Hi! Brand new member to the forums, but no stranger to how great Polks are! We sell them at the store I work at and I was sold. I like the speakers alot but I'm not sure if I'm getting the most out of them.

I have recently noticed that I am hearing a sharp hissing sound on all S and sometimes C or Z sound, Is this normal ? Or did I blow something?

I have included my system layout in the signature.
Any help would be appreciated!

amulford

Are they new? You need to let them break in...

PS- Run 10 ga to your center

Vemiant

Theyre new to the denon about 4weeks, but they were runing off of an old onkyo for a long while b4 that with no audiable problems. They didnt shine but i never blasted em loud or anything. I would think they were broken in by now. Newest thing to the line up is the power center. I got that last week.

F1nut

What you're hearing is called sibilance. It's not exactly normal, but it's not exactly uncommon. That is, there isn't anything really wrong with any of your gear that would require repair. The cause can be anything from mis-matched gear, your source, your cables, your speakers, etc. The solution will require a lot of trial and error. However, since you mention that it seemed to start with the addition of the Denon into the mix, that is probably a good place to start. Good luck.

WastelandWand'r

Not one to overlook the obvious, but if the Denon is new to the system, you will want to doublecheck your tone control settings to see if they were skewed out of the box. These newer all in ones can take a lifetime to become proficient with. Try a 'direct' (Denon term) connection in the analog world to see if it tames the highs.
Best of luck with it.
N

Vemiant

Could differant types of banana plugs be the problem? What about the power center?

Also would replacing the tweeters with a differant type. Horn for example fix the problem?

F1nut

No, different brands of banana plugs will not cause sibilance.

The power center? Doubtful, but take it out of the system and see for yourself.

You can't do that. In fact, horns with SS gear will probably be worse.

Google "sibilance" to get a better understanding of what it is.

madmax

Poor connections could cause it. You could try cleaning and tightening all the connections.
madmax

tonyb

I have also noticed a difference in cables when it comes to sibilance.Hdmi cables may or may not have a problem with this issue also.I know it's a pain in the **** to run down,but you need to change things one at a time,use one track of music for a constant to get a feel on what you change and any differences that occur.Gear matching,as others have said,could also play a role along with the quality of the source componants.Some cd's are recorded with some sibilance built in also.

danger boy

are you hearing it on all sources? Like if you listen to the FM radio.. so you hear that Ssssssss sound? or is it only on CD's or some other source? if it's only on say CD"s or any source connected, then it may be your interconnect audio cables.. I had that happen to me... Early on I didn't know audio interconnects could cause it too.

amulford

I'd start with the Denon.

reeltrouble1

I'd start with the Singer, some just do this when they form s to t sounds, which is why the problem can be intermittant, its normal actually for that individual. If its an all the time thing it may lessen as the speakers break in.

Welcome to audio get your wallet ready as it can be quite a rabbit hole.

RT1

Jim Shearer

Sibilance is most prominent in female vocalists. Find one where that is particularly evident; my test for sibilance is Lara Fabian singing 'Urgent Desire'.

Now start changing equipment & see what combinations are better or worse. I gave my daughter & son-in-law a pair of single driver speakers I built (Half Changs w/ Fostex FE206e drivers) and a RS Accurian amp to drive them. With their sources (combination of TV and a Sony PS3,) sibilance was horrible. By swapping out the Accurian for a cheap RS AVR, the problem was almost totally eliminated. I think the cause of the problem is a peak in the range of 6 KHz.

Cheers, Jim

Vemiant

Thx for all the replys guys! I've started to test things. The only thing i listen to is the ps3 , for cds and movies, and games. I've noticed it on all things from metal gear solid to lord of the rings to lenny kravitz. But since everything is through the one set up it is hard to tell. But I did notice that i also heard it on a friends xbox which was connected via optical. So that may eliminate the ps3 and the hdmi from the cause. Alright back to testing!

xandra

Vemiant -- is the hiss apparent on all speakers if you set on mono?

ALSO, you really MAY want to at least try taking the Denon off the Power Center. I had some audio gurus/snobs? over one day, who told me my power conditioner/surge protector was a bottleneck on my system, and that I'd be wiser taking the receiver off of the conditioner. I have no idea how valid this info is, but it's certainly an easy thing to test.

F1nut

It's not a hiss, it's called sibilance.

danger boy

Sssssss as in Sssnake

well ssssince it sssounds like it's a couple of different sourcesss.. then i'm thinking it'sss the receiver.

sibilance can be hard to track down.. I certainly went through mine early on, but have since made so many changes.. I don't remember exactly which item I replaced to solve it.
good luck. keep swapping stuff out if possible.

even try replacing your speaker wires... that believe it or not can also magnify the sibilance.

JohnLocke88

Vemiant wrote: »

Hi! Brand new member to the forums, but no stranger to how great Polks are! We sell them at the store I work at and I was sold. I like the speakers alot but I'm not sure if I'm getting the most out of them.

I have recently noticed that I am hearing a sharp hissing sound on all S and sometimes C or Z sound, Is this normal ? Or did I blow something?

I have included my system layout in the signature.
Any help would be appreciated!

You don't happen to work at Fry's do you?

VXR8

Vemiant wrote: »

Hi! Brand new member to the forums, but no stranger to how great Polks are! We sell them at the store I work at and I was sold. I like the speakers alot but I'm not sure if I'm getting the most out of them.

I have recently noticed that I am hearing a sharp hissing sound on all S and sometimes C or Z sound, Is this normal ? Or did I blow something?

I have included my system layout in the signature.
Any help would be appreciated!

I have the same receiver and had the same issue with my RTi10s. Once I swapped the speakers to the LSi Series, with the Vifa tweeter, problem solved with no other changes. It is the tweeter in the RTi series that produces that sound, no where near as refined as the LSi tweeter.

Also for music, run in Pure Direct mode on the Denon, that assists as well. Having said that, it can be a source issue as well though. I just recently upgraded my CDP to a Cambridge Audio Azur 740C and plugged the RTi10s back in. The sibilance was no where near as bad with that CDP as it was with the Oppo DV980H through analogue outs.

Good luck with tracking it down.

reeltrouble1

hmmm.............ok, so if we have recording's which are sibilant for some singers (mostly females) and we change the system to lessen this then is the sound of the recording's without sibilance also changed??

RT1

danger boy

RT1, I think sibilance to me as I have dealt with it.. came from inferior stereo gear somewhere in my system.. in time, and after many changes of amps, pre amps, speakers, interconnects and speaker wires.. my sibilance problem seemed to have solved itself.

by going up the stereo equipment ladder.. it solved itself.

reeltrouble1

ok, but sibilance is by defenition (Webster's) a speech sound that suggests hissing, so it initates with the vocal. I can understand though that a given system may be so poor as to exhibit sibilance with all s, sh, z, or zh sounds. But how often? And if it is only intermittent then the question is what if anything to do. I have chosen to leave my system as is, only rarely do I hear this and to change anything because of it is in fact to change everything. I just want folks to realize that by eliminating one thing you may very well create a different problem.

I am headed back down my own rabbit hole now.

RT1

F1nut

You ssssssilly rabbit.

Vemiant

JohnLocke88 wrote: »

You don't happen to work at Fry's do you?

Yes I do !