I often find myself yearning to hear sibilance when listening to music. I always expect the harshness of things like hard "s"es or cymbal crashes, and I and disappointed if I don't hear it. It isn't like I want a ton of it, but more like I have an appreciation for it. Much in the same way that I have an appreciation for tight bass.
Has anyone else experienced such a thing? Is there a name for something like this, or am I some sort of weirdo for liking it?
Be a part of the community.
It's free, join today!
Recent Reviews
-
I auditioned the SRH-1840 straight out of the box, and was unsatisfied with the sound, so I decided to give them a period of break-in. Recent scientific studies have shown definite differences...
-
I didn't think of TEAC when I began searching for a dedicated CD player. My initial short list included Denon, Cambridge, Marantz, Onkyo. The Teac intrigued me, so I went for it. It is very...
-
short terms: compact, loud, nice sounding, cheap ultraportables. detailed terms: AKG in the house ( fun, smooth, bassy, bright-warm & clear presentation ) cool for mainstream song...
-
Sennheiser HD-598s are the most comfortable headphones I've had the opportunity to use. I recommend these wholeheartedly for any first-time hi-fi buyer because of their excellent soundstage and...
-
I just received my SigPros (bought from a fellow head-fi'er), and now have several hours with them. They are great headphones. Agree with most of what everyone's saying about them. These...
Head-Fi Sponsors
I like silbilance. Weird?
Poll Results: Is it weird to like sibilance?
-
65% (17)Yes.
-
34% (9)No.
This should be interesting.
- Hawaiiancerveza
- Trader Feedback: +17
-
- offline
- 950 Posts. Joined 7/2009
- Location: Hilo Hawaii, USA's rainiest city
- Select All Posts By This User
mmmm not reeeeeeaaaaaly..... nope
- Ynoskire
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- offline
- 610 Posts. Joined 12/2009
- Location: Maastricht, Netherlands
- Select All Posts By This User
No, sibilance is annoying to me.
- paulb09
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- offline
- 733 Posts. Joined 7/2007
- Location: UK
- Select All Posts By This User
Unless extended treble is against one's taste, this is very much normal. As with your point about bass, sibilance is the other end of the scale, and you need reasonable extension and detail in both to avoid "compressed" sounding music, which is one of the biggest hates of audiophiles.
I would agree though that a lot of people rave over slamming bass, yet there isn't much appreciation for extended treble, so perhaps there is some gain from this topic ![]()
- Ynoskire
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- offline
- 610 Posts. Joined 12/2009
- Location: Maastricht, Netherlands
- Select All Posts By This User
Extended treble isn't sibilance. Sibilance is a peak in the 8000 hz region that makes everything sound horrible. Also, a headphone doesn't need large amounts of treble to be sibilant. I've never found ety's sibilant whilst my hd25 is. Sibilance isn't comparable to boomy bass, one should compare it to one-note bass. And frankly I've never seen somebody enjoy one-note bass. So I still recon the love for sibilance is a weird phenomenon. How do you cope with it when listening to live music where you'll have to live without sibilance?
- paulb09
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- offline
- 733 Posts. Joined 7/2007
- Location: UK
- Select All Posts By This User
I think you're missing the OP's point. What I believe they're trying to say, and what I'm trying to say, is whilst we appreciate tight, punchy bass (rather than the one-note kind), we also appreciate relative clarity at the other end of the scale, rather than compressed sounding treble where cymbals and the likes sound as if they're actually a single little triangle battling against an orchestra of bass instruments. Maybe I'm wrong though: perhaps they do mean out-right sibilance, in which case I've miss-understood and should have voted them being weird along with everyone else. Maybe I Mm
I'll happily join you in saying I don't like a massive peak in the music there, but at the same time I do want to hear some, else I can't liken it to hearing the same thing in real life.
And of course I don't mean absolute treble extension (i.e. whether the headphone can manage 16K+ at any sensible level), but when you're considering music, unless you enjoy listening to high frequency waves, the ringing from cymbals etc. is about as high as you're going to get, so it's only natural to talk about treble at the same time. And yes, a headphone doesn't have to have large amounts of treble to be sibilant, but I don't know of any headphones in particular that have a sizable bass hump just to go on and have very little treble other than an 8K peak. If I did find one, I sure wouldn't want to listen to it.

Extended treble isn't sibilance. Sibilance is a peak in the 8000 hz region that makes everything sound horrible. Also, a headphone doesn't need large amounts of treble to be sibilant. I've never found ety's sibilant whilst my hd25 is. Sibilance isn't comparable to boomy bass, one should compare it to one-note bass. And frankly I've never seen somebody enjoy one-note bass. So I still recon the love for sibilance is a weird phenomenon. How do you cope with it when listening to live music where you'll have to live without sibilance?
- TheWuss
- Trader Feedback: +11
-
- offline
- 2,762 Posts. Joined 1/2010
- Location: Birmingham, AL
- Select All Posts By This User

Extended treble isn't sibilance. Sibilance is a peak in the 8000 hz region that makes everything sound horrible. Also, a headphone doesn't need large amounts of treble to be sibilant. I've never found ety's sibilant whilst my hd25 is. Sibilance isn't comparable to boomy bass, one should compare it to one-note bass. And frankly I've never seen somebody enjoy one-note bass. So I still recon the love for sibilance is a weird phenomenon. How do you cope with it when listening to live music where you'll have to live without sibilance?
Not necessarily.
Sibilance is a natural part of some recordings. And when portrayed correctly, they should still have some sibilance.
Take, for example, an entire slew of "quiet" female singers who have to be mic'd closely. Dianna Krall, Melody Gardot, Carla Bruni.
Their recordings are covered up with harsher consonant sounds. Particularly "S" sounds.
If a system does not give you the slight hiss when Melody Gardot ssssings, then I wouldn't necessarily call it neutral and revealing.
Since the sibilance phenomenon can be linked with intimate recording techniques, one might even go so far as to call sibilance in female vocals sexy.
I'm just being devil's advocate here... ![]()
My $.02
What I meant was I enjoying hearing very detailed treble, more so than I enjoy detailed bass/mids. Whenever I am listening to music, say Avenged Sevenfold or Beethoven, where there are loud and distinct cymbal crashes, I expect for the treble to be as detailed as it is in real life. When I stand next to a drum and someone smashes a cymbal, I hear sibilance. There isn't tons of it, but if I don't hear that reproduced with my headphones, I feel almost cheated. As if I am missing out on actually being there to hear it for myself.
That does not mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that I want to hear overemphasized sibilance, in the same way that I wouldn't want to hear overemphasized bass. Too much sibilance hurts my ears as much as the next guy, but if there is none there, I consider the headphones or speakers to be inaccurate. I always expect and look for sibilance in a decent degree when listening to music.
I hope that that clarifies.
- TheWuss
- Trader Feedback: +11
-
- offline
- 2,762 Posts. Joined 1/2010
- Location: Birmingham, AL
- Select All Posts By This User

What I meant was I enjoying hearing very detailed treble, more so than I enjoy detailed bass/mids. Whenever I am listening to music, say Avenged Sevenfold or Beethoven, where there are loud and distinct cymbal crashes, I expect for the treble to be as detailed as it is in real life. When I stand next to a drum and someone smashes a cymbal, I hear sibilance. There isn't tons of it, but if I don't hear that reproduced with my headphones, I feel almost cheated. As if I am missing out on actually being there to hear it for myself.
That does not mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that I want to hear overemphasized sibilance, in the same way that I wouldn't want to hear overemphasized bass. Too much sibilance hurts my ears as much as the next guy, but if there is none there, I consider the headphones or speakers to be inaccurate. I always expect and look for sibilance in a decent degree when listening to music.
I hope that that clarifies.
i understand what you're saying now.
but it might be more accurate to say that headphone listening removes room acoustics / distortions / phenomena from the listening experience.
and one of those phenomena may be the way loud treble sounds when reverberating in a live venue.
because, conversely, not hearing it when listening to headphones is more likely an indication that it is not present in the recording, unfortunately.
![]()
The thing is, I often hear it with my Superlux hd662f and even my meleec m6 when I don't hear it say in my car or with ipod earbuds. (I have a friend who swears by those things but that is beside the point) I wouldn't venture to say that it is the room acoustics that I am expecting to hear. This point is something that I am not sure how to clarify. Have you ever stood near someone playing the drums? That un-messed-with harshness in the treble of the cymbals is what I am talking about.
Does anyone else like this trebly harshness/sibilance?
- piotrus-g
- Trader Feedback: +2
-
- offline
- 937 Posts. Joined 4/2009
- Location: Poland
- Select All Posts By This User
Woted yes since silibiance is a flaw for me.
Sibilance does not occur in real life.
- Head Injury
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- offline
- 4,953 Posts. Joined 9/2009
- Location: Ponyville
- Select All Posts By This User
Sibilance does not mean detail. You should probably change the thread title (and poll if you can) before you confuse everyone. You don't need excessive sibilance to be detailed. There should be some when it's on the recording. It doesn't have to hurt.
- Astrozombie
- Trader Feedback: +3
-
- offline
- 405 Posts. Joined 4/2011
- Location: East Los Angeles
- Select All Posts By This User
Because live it can sound harsh and not very "detailed" so yah i see where you're coming from.
Recent Discussions
- › AKG K550 - NEW!! 1 second ago
- › Grado Fan Club! 18 seconds ago
- › IC: functional K1000 27 seconds ago
- › The diary entries of a little girl nearing 30! 31 seconds ago
- › Would I enjoy the Audeze-LCD-2/3? 40 seconds ago
- › Recycle Plastic... Don't wear it! 10% VOUCHER + WIN A M-100 + VAMP 48 seconds ago
- › bad trader!! crap, i need help!!! 1 minute ago
- › Looking for audiophile PC speakers on a budget 1 minute ago
- › Sennheiser HD 700: Officially Unveiled at CES 2012! 1 minute ago
- › What happened to the dedicated CD transport ? 1 minute ago
Recent Reviews
- › Shure SRH1840 Professional Open Back Headphones (Black) by kstuart
- › TEAC PD-H600 Reference 600 Series CD Player by gonkulator
- › AKG K403 by eskimoo
- › Sennheiser HD-598 by TK277
- › Ultrasone Signature Pro Headphones by baglunch
- › JVC HA-S600 by pootispow
- › Audez'e LCD-2 Planar Magnetic Headphones by Squuiid
- › Superlux HD-668 B by BlackTea
- › Cowon C2-16BS 16 GB Video Player, Black with Silver by burninmind
- › BRAINWAVZ HM5 Studio Monitor Headphones by Night Crawler
New Articles
- › iBasso DX100 FAQ by DoctorHeadz
- › DIY Cable Info and Resources by Pingupenguins
- › Asr Head-Fi Threads Compendium by Asr
- › Headphone Buying Guide by keanex
- › Fostex T50RP modification summary LINKS - wiki by jgray91
- › Comparisons of the LCD-3 and the LCD-2 Rev. 2 by MacedonianHero
- › Posting Guidelines by Currawong
- › Comparisons of LCD-2 Rev. 1 and Rev. 2 by MacedonianHero
- › Membership Levels, Badges and Custom Titles by Currawong
- › Sennheiser Hd4 8 Modding For Newbies by koolkat
About Head-Fi.org | Join the Community | Advertise
© 2012 Head-Fi.org is powered by Huddler Tech | FAQ | Support | Privacy/TOS | Site Map






