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Power Conditioners to reduce Sibilance

I moved my system into a new home and was having problems with treble brightness and sibilance. I moved the speakers around and got rid of most of my troubles. I then upgraded to a more revealing preamp with money that I saved up and the problem returned (despite sonic improvements in other areas). I have read that power conditioners are great for reducing sibilance. Is this actually the case. What would you suggest for under $500US used?
adamg
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
1,368 posts
 
Adam, I know there isn't much faith in cables changing the sound of your system, but I decided to mention this to you anyway....
Is your speaker cable a bi-wired pair?
If not you must be using the B&W jumpers? My speakers sounded terrible with a single run of speaker cable using B&W jumpers. Midrange and trebble were out of control. I changed to same cable but a bi-wired pair and I could not beleive the improvement. At least with my speakers, I noticed a huge difference. If you have someone to lend you a pair of bi-wire cables, try 'em out. See if that will change anything. It was a big and positive change with my N803s.
adamg OP
89 posts
 
The bi-wire suggestion has come up in comments regarding my system and is now something I am considering. I use XLO ultra 6 and the bi-wire version (XLO ultra 12) sells for $50/foot in Canada. I may have to look into it but that is a little steep for my student budget.
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
1,368 posts
 
You could actually find another used single run pair of the cables you already have and just double your run. Find a place that will let you audition a pair so you don't waste your $ on something that will not produce desired results.
robm321
932 posts
 
Cable could make a difference, but it will be subtle. You will still have the brightness problem, but possibly to a lesser degree. It's kind of like using duck tape.
apmaher
29 posts
 
Power conditioners can offer great results with pc based systems. I have heard and seen major differences between plugging my pc direct into the wall, parallel filtering, isolation transformer, and balanced ac. Currently I use a custom balanced hybrid PLC designed for studio use. My pc has never sounded or performed better.

PC PSU - Power & Cooling 510 Ultra
Hard Drive - Western Digital ATA and SATA
Motherboard - ASUS K8V Deluxe
CPU - AMD 3400+
Soundcard - Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe (AES option)
AGP - ATI Radeon 9800XT
CD/DVD - Plextor 712A
Case - Cooler Master CM Stacker
Power Cord - Perfect Cable Silver Reference III
DVI Cable - RAM HDTV Cable
Digital Audio cable - Perfect Cable Studio Reference III
Internal Shielding - Stillpoints ERS and TI Shield
Internal Cabling - Cooler Master Shielded Cabling

Regards
Alan
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