D220 pro CI vs D440 pro CI

[David A]

Thanks for all the room treatment and speaker placement advice.  I noticed that I am getting quite a bit of sibilant sound with female vocals (e.g. Diana Krall). I read somewhere that this is common with Devialet. Any recommendations?

Sibilance is a problem with a lot of possible causes. It can be a recording problem and some mics can exaggerate the amount od sibilance in a singer's voice. Singers can control it to some degree by replacing the "sh" syllable with a "th", effectively employing a slight, deliberate lisp. to avoid singing sibilants . If sibilance is captured in the recording it can be reduced or made worse in the mixing and mastering process. Finally, some components in our systems can make it worse and some things in the room can make it worse. If you've got surfaces like an uncovered glass window or door, or a picture framed under glass, or glass or ceramic objects on shelves at a first reflection point, that can make the problem worse. You can cover windows with a curtain or blind or you can move pictures and objects.

Another possible room problem is an uncovered hard, reflective floor like a polished concrete floor or a tiled floor between the speakers and the listening position. A natural fibre rug can solve that problem.

You've got a particularly small room and that may make the problem worse. Air can absorb high and mid frequencies but the lower the frequency, the greater the distance the sound has to travel in order to be absorbed. In a small room you get more early reflections and early reflections have travelled through less air than late reflections so the reflected sound in a small room can contribute to a brighter overall sound than you get in a large room like a concert hall. Though I prefer to leave first reflection points untreated myself, treating them can reduce the problem in some rooms so you could try something like using fabric wall hangings at first reflection points rather than acoustic panels which would absorb more sound over a wider range to see if that takes the edge off things.

In the end, however, some recordings display more sibilance than others and some singers display more sibilance than others. Diana Krall who you mentioned is one singer whose voice and recordings can show more sibilance than others in my experience.