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Thanks Fcodamo for your encouragement.
frenchrooster & LindsayM, appreciate your candid views. This is of my own doing. So, I have to dig myself out of this hole.
Looking back, settling on ProAc, the speakers these Focals replaced, also took years. Those days more than 10 years ago, I was not in the same financial position as I am now. Went to many places listen to many mid priced speakers some bigger name brands than others but none met what I wanted until I heard the ProAcs. Over the last 10 years, I stuck with ProAcs albeit upgrading to the Carbon 8 from D80R more than 5 years ago.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
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I understand that the very resolving system you have needs a lot of optimization, patience, careful set up, and time.
I really hope you will succeed.
But as your speakers are now fully run in, the only possibility left is acoustic treatment change and/or isolation devices under your speakers.
But will it transform enough the sound to the level where you will be fully satisfied and feel « wouah! , these speakers are fantastic ! », I would like to believe in that.
But yes, maybe I am candid , as Lindsay, and can’t take the measure of the difficulties inherent in such an expensive and complicated system.
However for that amount of money I would wish myself to be in stellar euphoria, and relatively quick,´not years ago.
Maybe it’s easier to be happy with a simple system…
Yes I think with a simpler system it’s easier to achieve synergy. A chap I used to work with - assume he still has it haven’t seen him for a while - has a Rega P5/Dynavector Dyna 10x5/CD5XS/Stageline/XS2/Dyna Focus 140s and it absolutely sings.
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Well, I had a listen last night using other tracks. I had been fixated on the few tracks from 1 album which I used to audition at the dealer’s last year. The conclusion is that yes, the sibilance issue is definitely much reduced but not totally gone. On well recorded songs, the system actually sounded quite decent. However, I still want to improve on the reduction of sibilance. I want to hear the same as I heard last year at the dealer’s. Anyway, for now, the level of anxiety has gone down significantly. I am no longer thinking about throwing out the Focals but rather what needs to be done to get more enjoyment out of them. Make no mistake, they are not ProAcs. I will not get the same sweet / sugarcoated vocals from the Focals. I hope to have the siblilance under control and enjoy the vocal presentation but not in the same way as the ProAcs. Listened to Sade’s Smooth Operator on CD. The bass was penetrating (not sure how to describe) and it’s something that I did not experience with the ProAcs ever.
Moving forward :
- more cooking / burn in for at least 200-500hrs
- placement / positioning of the speakers, trying to find the best spot
- replace speaker cables which is made up of 2 lengths connected by binding posts each side for the moment
- remove the rollers / caster wheels to be replaced by Isoacoustics footers
- Wait patiently for the Vivaldi transport to come back to me
- Hopefully, the idler wheel turntable will also turn up this year
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Major break through. My upstream equipment is the cause of this sibilance. For the last 10 years with the ProAc, I have favoured the Purepower power regenerator to power all my front end whether be it digital or analogue pieces. I have tried the PS Audio power plants but found them to be too ‘soft’.
Last night, I swapped out the Purepower for a PS Audio P5 I had lying around. I think I am now on track and can start to settle the speakers in terms of positioning and placement and tuning. What a relief.
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Excellent. I found with my system it was primarily grounding.
Glad you are not still pulling your hair out!
M
The Fenestria look very interesting speakers Giorgio, I just watched a short film discussing them. Great system you have.
Everyone in my neck of the woods uses the PS Audio P10. I am the only odd man out with preference for the Purepower. Purepower has a reputation & I dread the day when they finally break down & I will need to find replacement. I have 2 units - one for digital & one for analogue. So with the new revelation, I have only an old PS Audio P5 which is doing power supply to turntables duty prior. Now, both digital & analogue will have to plugged into the PS Audio while the Purepower takes over turntable motor power supply duties.
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The other thing to remember you have such a highly resolving system … anything just anything that is not spot on will be resolved… as for music well poorly recorded material will just be conveyed as that… I am so glad you have solved your issue… ps there are lots of fantastic recordings so you should be very happy…keep well…
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Hi,
Cool you have resolved your problem of brightness.
Just curious of other of your posts. You were saying that you will perhaps move from Statements to Fm Acoustics. Why? And why not CH precision or Soulution or Dagostino?
Yeah good question!
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Many people tell me that the FM has similar sound signature to Naim and is sweeter. My out of town friend who has the older Stella uses all FM pre / power combo - very very nice.
I have removed the last of my passive power conditioning devices (more like power factor correction devices) and gain even more reduction in sibilance. So much so that I have adjusted the tweeter level links on the speakers to normal position. Was a just too tired last night. Will listen again tonight to confirm.
My Vivaldi transport will be back from the UK on Monday. Time to boogie.
Moral of the story, power conditioning is system dependent and not one size fit all. Yet another lesson even after more than 20 years in this hobby.
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Told you that you would get it right! Your 20 years of experience has helped you here to identify the source of the sibilance! Enjoy your beautiful system. 
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Last year I had to plug in an extension lead in the music room. Unfortunately I noticed that at the same time vinyl replay seemed to take a nasty hit - it sounded like the stylus had fluff on it or had been slightly damaged. It drove me potty for a few hours, cleaning the stylus, checking VTF etc… until the penny dropped; the mains block I had plugged in (not connected to the system, but in the same room) had surge protection onboard. Unplugging it and all was restored to its previous glory. Plug it back in and the top end got a bit “dirty” again, like the stylus had got fluff on it again.
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FM pre and power are very nice, heard them a few times over the year’s in top end systems, i feel i would certainly look at them if i ever want to go up the ladder further than naim.
One said FM system was being fronted by a DCS, 4 box vivaldi stack, can’t remember what the speakers were, but it sounded very lush indeed and just had it all.
Curious… have you tried removing all the power conditioners from your system and listening to the result?
I am moving in that direction. For now, the CD555 beats the DCS with or without power conditioning. DCS has better sound stage but not as good on the human voice. So, I am going with CD555 for now. DCS has 100’s of permutation with mappings, filters, upsampling rates that need further exploration. I am working on a baseline here. CD555 for now.
Vinyl playback - the Bergmann + Benz Micro + ARC ref 10 phono beats the AVID + Thales reference + DS Audio Grandmaster. More lush. There is hope yet for the Avid. Did a quick & dirty mount with Koetsu Blue Azule stone body + Fidelity Research FR64S heavy arm + ARC phono - wow, lush and nice. Need to break out the microscope to do a better job tonight. Been trying to make the Koetsu work for the last 5-7 years without success.
I am starting to accept reality that the Focal is not ProAc. Much better in soundstage and bass but brighter in the highs that is nice and not nice at the same time. Need to tune the rest of the equipment to suit. More revealing than the ProAc. Any small change in the system is quite noticeable. Differences between the sound signatures of equipment are also quite apparent. Not glossed over with minor perceptible difference. Clear and discernable with preference of one over the other. This means that moving forward, box count may drop. I will still have CD replay and LP replay in the main system. However, some replay hardware may be swapped out.
Say - can the ND555 beat the CD555 ? Curious (famous last words)
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I am surprised that CD555 beats your full stack 100k DCS Vivaldi. Only on voices or other aspects ?
@Dunc will not be able to believe 
Now you’re talking! 
ATB Peter
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