[Raphael]

I noticed this somtimes before, but moreso now. Since I received my iMod, the openess and the natural timbre has absolutely blown me away. But I am picking up a shrill upper end with some present sibilance. Most the high end is shrill. I'm not sure if its the iMod, or whether it's bringing out weakness from the Go-Vibe 5. I doubt it's my ER-4S. I'm using FLAC files.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

I'm thinking:

Probably - Your music
Rare - filters on the ER4S

 

[Raphael]

This is happening with a lot of my music

And that includes a very broad range of genres

 

[lan]

How long have you owned this? Is it ipod gen 4 or 5?

 

[Raphael]

It is a 4th gen 60GB Photo. I have owned this under a month I would say. It has about 250 hours of burn in. I'm hoping things will settle, and hoping that it's just my ears adjusting to it. It feels like the music is being forced through the earphones in the higher end of the spectrum. I'll try a filter change later.

 

[JadeEast]

This may be a bit tweaky but some people clean all the
contacts of their equipment with a contact cleaner
and report a cleaner high end and less shibalansh.
YMMV

 

[Raphael]

That sounds a bit farfetched, but I can try that out. My ears are more used to it now. The harshness has reduced significantly, but I can still hear that the treble suffers when the notes go high. It seems like there is a struggle in the equipment and that causes the high end to be shrill. "i.e Eva Cassidy - Time Is A Healer".

 

[lan]

Well I can think of a few things

1 - Blackgates need a lot of burn in. They are harsh and have less bass until they settle down. There's not much signal going through there so it may take longer than "usual".

2 - Lower end components are not refined. I've always found the ipod harsh on top.

3 - Bypassing the passive components is letting more high frequency noise through.

 

[flashbak]

Well I will say this. Just as it brings out the best in good recordings so can it bring out the worst in bad. Don't know what platform you're on, but on a Mac I use Amadeus Pro to lower the gain of the ripped CD's (wave) before moving them to the IMod. This is even more critical if you are playing back MP3's etc...which really aren't recommended with the IMod.

 

[Raphael]

Ian, I really hope it's just the blackgate settling in.

flashbak, I use ReplayGain on FLAC files. It definitely isn't the recordings. I've heard them played back on a very nice pair of Snell speakers and a Sony SACD player without any problems in the high end.

 

[flashbak]

Raphael,
Are you using EQ on the IPod? If not, then I'm sorry, but I'm pretty much out of ideas. Time to consult with Vinnie/Ken I'd say.

 

[omendelovitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raphael /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ian, I really hope it's just the blackgate settling in. flashbak, I use ReplayGain on FLAC files. It definitely isn't the recordings. I've heard them played back on a very nice pair of Snell speakers and a Sony SACD player without any problems in the high end.

Raph, try altering the gain on your flacs to 91 dB (89 dB is optimal unless the volume gets too low for you). I've run into tons of trouble fooling around with the gain on my mp3's. Trust me on this one, it's too much to explain how it all works right now. I just finished painting the bathroom and I'm tired/hungry