Tuning Out Denon D2000 Sibilance
Jan 29, 2014 0:58:34 GMT
Post by imstimpy on Jan 29, 2014 0:58:34 GMT
To give y'all some background first, let me start at the beginning.
I came across the Panda amp threads a few months back and built one for home. My AKG K701s went from my least favorite cans to my absolute favorite! Sadly, I don't enjoy listening to my work setup any longer. I have a HeadRoom Micro Amp at work powering some Lawton L1 Denon D2000s. The Denons have a narrow stage, boomy fatiguing bass when the volume goes up, and a veil sitting on over the mids and highs. The problem is partially due to my source at work and partially due to the amp at work. Swapping the source helps, but powering the Denons on the Panda helps more. Unfortunately, the Panda adds sibilance that is not present on the K701s nor on the Micro. I've found the sibilance on only once song so far, so I might be blowing this out of proportion...
From what I'm told, Denons do not like tube amplifiers, and I've confirmed they sound muddy when powered by a Crack OTL. I'm open to the idea that they might sound better on a different amplifier, but I'm hesitant to just start buying kits. If there is a DIY amp that is a good pairing, I'm all ears.
In the mean time the Panda can be tweaked, but I don't know what to tweak. Does anybody know of specific components that have an impact on sibilance?
So far, I've bypassed or swapped capacitors on the Panda and tweaked the power rail (I can go into further detail, if necessary). The soundstage and detail improved, but it did little to the sibilance (as best I can tell). I swapped output resistors from 75Ω and 120Ω and that definitely decreased the sibilance of the Denons, but the 120Ω didn't entirely clear it up. I heard swapping the ceramics for polystyrenes adds harshness, but would silver mica go the other way? What about output transistors?
Thanks for the help!
I came across the Panda amp threads a few months back and built one for home. My AKG K701s went from my least favorite cans to my absolute favorite! Sadly, I don't enjoy listening to my work setup any longer. I have a HeadRoom Micro Amp at work powering some Lawton L1 Denon D2000s. The Denons have a narrow stage, boomy fatiguing bass when the volume goes up, and a veil sitting on over the mids and highs. The problem is partially due to my source at work and partially due to the amp at work. Swapping the source helps, but powering the Denons on the Panda helps more. Unfortunately, the Panda adds sibilance that is not present on the K701s nor on the Micro. I've found the sibilance on only once song so far, so I might be blowing this out of proportion...
From what I'm told, Denons do not like tube amplifiers, and I've confirmed they sound muddy when powered by a Crack OTL. I'm open to the idea that they might sound better on a different amplifier, but I'm hesitant to just start buying kits. If there is a DIY amp that is a good pairing, I'm all ears.
In the mean time the Panda can be tweaked, but I don't know what to tweak. Does anybody know of specific components that have an impact on sibilance?
So far, I've bypassed or swapped capacitors on the Panda and tweaked the power rail (I can go into further detail, if necessary). The soundstage and detail improved, but it did little to the sibilance (as best I can tell). I swapped output resistors from 75Ω and 120Ω and that definitely decreased the sibilance of the Denons, but the 120Ω didn't entirely clear it up. I heard swapping the ceramics for polystyrenes adds harshness, but would silver mica go the other way? What about output transistors?
Thanks for the help!