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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: the worst of all evils when evaluating a hifi system ..... is ? posted by trioderob on February 10, 2023 at 10:14:41:
"Brittle, strident, and harsh" high frequencies may result from several factors, most of which involve not merely exaggerated HF response but audible (and measurable!) HF distortion. This distortion may come from the source component, amplification components, or the speakers themselves. In the latter case, the distortion usually results from crossing in the tweeter too low, with too shallow a highpass filter, often (but not necessarily) at too high an output level relative to the midrange. The problem is that the tweeter is being pushed into overexcursion at the bottom of its range. The solution, of course, would be to use a more robust tweeter, with lower Fs and higher power handling.
Some speaker brands (recent B&W and Paradigm reviews, and the new MoFi coaxials come to mind) are voiced with an elevated HF response, but are not reported as sounding particularly shrill or edgy. Subjective reviews often characterize their sound as "airy and extended." This suggests that distortion is not an issue with them.
Too few speaker brands, IMHO, offer owners the option of fine-adjusting the tweeter output to suit their own systems, rooms, recordings, and sonic preferences. JBL and a few others always have. In some of my DIY projects, I've gotten excellent results with high quality rotary L-pads, which allow adjustments of a fraction of a dB. That is often enough!
Of course, there are plenty of recordings which sound harsh and shrill. Nothing you can do about that except EQ down the treble response of the system, which can mitigate the goosed-up high frequencies, but will do nothing to alleviate the distortion inherent in the recording.
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Follow Ups
- Treble in mind - Brian H P 02/10/2313:24:21 02/10/23 (1)
- that an interesting read ,,,,,,,,, - trioderob 18:53:32 02/10/23 (0)
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