Sibilance issue

[soundlab]

Hello!

I've setup a pair of B&W CDM 9NT speakers with my Sonos Amp and Sonos Sub and am hearing sibilance that is driving me crazy

It appears in REW I have a pretty serious spike around 6.5K...

Speaker vs. room issue? Any thoughts on how to address this?

REW file and screen capture attached

Thank you!

 

[DanDan]

Something has to be wrong here. What Microphone are you using? Pointed in which direction? Do you have single speaker measurement?

 

[soundlab]

I don’t have individual speaker measurements, will get those next

MiniDSP calibrated mic aimed from central listening position

It’s definitely not a measurement/capture issue, I can clearly hear that 6k sibilance on all kinds of recordings

Wondering if maybe a tweeter Is misaligned or damaged or something?

 

[DanDan]

That is awful. It seems unlikely that both tweeters gone, so let's measure, and listen, does one speaker sound normal?

 

[AJ Soundfield]

I agree with Dan something looks amiss with your measurement, regardless of what you are hearing, which I don't doubt.
Set the lower/upper limits of your graph from 40db to 100db, your scaling is waaay too wide.
Next, put the mic 1m in front of one speaker. Measure. Do a sweep limited from say 3k to 22k, with your ear next to tweeter (not too loud!) and see if you hear sound coming out of it. Repeat with other speaker.

cheers

 

[AJ Soundfield]

Ahh, just saw a pic of your speakers rear, with biamp terminals. Is this correct? If so, make sure jumpers are in place/properly tightened.

 

[soundlab]

Dan / AJ thanks for weighing in on this, really appreciate it. Plugs/terminals are all fully seated, good idea to check.

See attached single speaker measurements and new center position measurements with 1/3 smoothing so they're easier to interpret
I couldn't believe how sharply the high end drops off, so I disassembled the grilles on both tweeters and see that they've been banged in pretty good

I'm thinking what I'm hearing might be a lack of high end in the system rather than a boost in the midrange, all other speakers look OK. Looks like they need to be replaced. Thoughts? Prayers? Thoughts And Prayers?

Chris
Vermont

 

[soundlab]

Luckily these tweeters and grills are available for reasonable money from B&W so I'm going to get those replaced and hope for the best

 

[DanDan]

Kids I suspect....... Should be perfect when replaced. Tolerances are very close at B&W I suspect.

 

[soundlab]

I think shipping damage more likely since I rolled the dice and had these shipped freight from out of state because the price was too good to turn down, will post results when I get them fixed up

Great forum here, thanks Dan

Chris
Vermont

 

[AJ Soundfield]

Damaged tweeters will definitely mess up response! Great that B&W has replacements, as their drivers are proprietary.
Good luck with the change out Chris,

cheers

 

[soundlab]

Replaced the tweeters and ran some new measurements.

Happy to report the dreaded 6.5K bump has been eliminated! Sounds soooooo much better

 

[DanDan]

Great.

 

[AJ Soundfield]

Now you just need to advertise your old tweets as "One of a kind B&W inverted dome tweeters" on ebay
Just kidding of course, enjoy your restored sound

 

[soundlab]

“Lightly tossed around the back of a UPS truck B&W tweeters”

 

[bvocal]

Hello!

I've setup a pair of B&W CDM 9NT speakers with my Sonos Amp and Sonos Sub and am hearing sibilance that is driving me crazy

It appears in REW I have a pretty serious spike around 6.5K...

Speaker vs. room issue? Any thoughts on how to address this?

REW file and screen capture attached

Thank you!

I'm not going to even read the other responses, as they are all wrong. Your issue is fairly straight forward, the solution is not. First, you have B&W speakers with the tweeter on top, the tweeter is on top so you have 360 tweeter dispersion. 2nd, B&W speakers are super hard to set up, they are picky as heck, acoustic treatment must be spot on, and you have none, which also means they, above, are likely right about your measurements being wrong, as no speaker in an untreated room will read like that.
3. This is your problem, besides having zero acoustic treatment, you have 2 windows and a glass covered piece of art perfectly placed to create insane levels of Sibilance.
I demoed some B&W speakers in an untreated room with glass issues, almost tore my ears off.

 

[soundlab]

If you read the thread you’d learn both tweeters were smashed during shipping and barely even firing. I replaced them and the system sounds incredible. I appreciate the input of others on the thread

 

[bvocal]

Groovy, a note, you still have serious acoustic issues. cheers.