[TheWuss]

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The S do stand out but it didn't bother me too much on the HD600, but is it just me or does the percussion sounds weird and the whole song sounds unnatural...
 

well... it is from the 80's after all.  pretty processed, and effected. 

 

[lejaz]

 "diamonds in the sunset" isn't too bad with the k702, but the phrase "worlds turn to stone" is pretty bad. The whole recording is on the bright side....possible it's just the way it was recorded. I only listened to a 256kbs mp3 though. Some of the old Simon and Garfunkle recordings are far worse on the S's...even on the CD...painful. I'll have to find one of them later to post as a test track. I'm curious how other headphones handle those harsh S's.
 
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wow.  holy thread brought back from the dead.
 
you should still be able to hear sibilance.  it's between 6khz and 10khz, i think.
 
here's a test track i use:
 
"don't look down" by lindsey buckingham.  when he sings "diamonds in the sunset", every S can sound harsh, depending on your set-up.  with a treble-hot system, you will just about rip your headphones off.
but, with a more laid-back treble system, the S sounds are nice and soft.
 
also, some singers are more prone to sibilance than others.  diana krall and richard thompson can create some pretty hard S's.  hahaha. 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[KingStyles]

My sibalance tester song is
Carrie Underwoods  -   So Small.
Serious sibilance there.

 

[lejaz]

Simon and Garfunkle, "El Condor Pasa" from the Bridge Over Troubled Waters album. About 40 sec into the song the vocals appear..."I'd rather be a sssssparrow than a ssssnail. Yes I would, if I could,  I surely would." Garfunkle's vocals are worse later on in the song. Some of their earlier stuff is even worse than that....really bad S's. I can only assume that they had really laid back monitors in the Colombia studios in the late '60's or they wouldn't have let all that sibilance through.

 

[playingwithfire]

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Simon and Garfunkle, "El Condor Pasa" from the Bridge Over Troubled Waters album. About 40 sec into the song the vocals appear..."I'd rather be a sssssparrow than a ssssnail. Yes I would, if I could,  I surely would." Garfunkle's vocals are worse later on in the song. Some of their earlier stuff is even worse than that....really bad S's. I can only assume that they had really laid back monitors in the Colombia studios in the late '60's or they wouldn't have let all that sibilance through.

Now that I know what sibilance it, it will definitely bother me. The rest of the song is decently recorded too(a bit bright?) but definitely more natural than that Lindsey Buckingham song.

 

[chinesekiwi]

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Alright, I'll bump this instead of starting a new one.
 
Excuse my ignorance but I never understood or experienced sibilance before. I know it's the shh sound but I want to hear it(would I be able to hear it? my hearing cuts off at about 18khz)
 
Can anybody suggest a couple tracks that has really bad sibilance? I don't have the rest of my phones with me, but out of the RE0 and the HD 600, which has worse sibilance problem?

New Order - True Faith
 
It's my test track for sibilance and you'll see why:
 

 

 

[lejaz]

"The Sssssssound of Ssssssssilence" ...one of the 1st huge hits for Simon and Garfunkle. It really bugs me because I like a lot of their stuff from the '60's. Maybe no one had high end gear back in the mid '60's? I have a Sinatra CD with mostly stuff from the '50's and it's really bad too with the 240DF and the k702.

 

[bob111]

has anyone else noticed lots of sibilance and high pitched crackling in the re0, i searched for others who ran into this, and couldnt find anyone, but the mp3 is 178 kbps so i cant tell if its just too source revealing but on the song like spinning plates by radiohead it sticks out in the intro, and revolution solution bby thievery corporation has it a lot on every s, or so it sounds on the re0s i dont notice sibilance too badly on my backbeat pros, but i cant tell if thats just cuz those arent as good in quality to the re0? 

 

[Uncle Erik]

Sibilance happens naturally. You'll hear it at live events, so I don't fault recordings or gear for reproducing it. And it's never bothered me. Anything can drive you nuts if you intentionally focus on it.

 

[Ypoknons]

Normal recorded sibilance is fine, but wouldn't excessive sibilance be diagnostic of a high/midhigh bump in the gear? 
 
Sibilance is very noticeable with Mandarin music because the language is full of hissy pronunciations: s, sh, xu, ci .... (in English they aren't sibilant, bu they are when spoken in Mandarin). Usually I EQ those away if it gets too jarring. But no point designing your entire system around avoiding sibilance, not a critical desktop setup anyways. 

 

[SP Wild]

The only natural occuring sibilance I know off is from incorrectly exageratted gay stereotypes.  Natural vocals have no real sibilance - it is a product of imperfect microphones.  The Senheiser HD6XX series is quite natural in this regard.

 

[Roger Strummer]

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The only natural occuring sibilance I know off is from incorrectly exageratted gay stereotypes.  Natural vocals have no real sibilance - it is a product of imperfect microphones.  The Senheiser HD6XX series is quite natural in this regard.

Actually I've found the HD6xx "under-sibilant" if anything (I'm talking particularly about the 650). There are quite a few of recordings that I know suffer from exaggerated sibilance in which they fail to reproduce it.*
 
And yeah, sibilance does happen naturally, I've heard it in some live performances, and in the case of some amplified performances (say some new rock band in a pub) it has been at ear hurting levels, but I've also heard it in accoustic performances. Although I'm not saying that there are not headphones that exaggerate it (say GS1000 at high volume), just as Ypoknons said, an exaggerated sibilance is a symptom of a frequency hump.
 
 
*That is with my equipment, didn't test sibilant records when hearing them balanced.