High pass at 450 Hz, perceived harshness from around 8khz reduced??

[Pdxwayne]

I found a certain vocal recordings irritate me more than others. See my thread at https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...educe-the-irritation-via-eq.22715/post-755786

The first video in my other thread irritated me the most when using my Paradigm Persona B speakers. When using my phone and headphones, using phone eq sliders, I determined that the harshness is most likely near the 8khz region. Other eq sliders at difference frequencies did not help reduce the harshness.

Over the weekend, I tried something not intended to address the harshness, but to my surprised, the perceived harshness reduced a lot when I high pass my Paradigm at 450hz. My thread about combining speakers set is at https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...rid-3-ways-good-or-bad-idea.22755/post-757049.

Is there a reason why high pass speakers at 450hz helps reducing perceived harshness near 8khz region?

Amp less stress? Amp and speakers impedence interaction changes when high pass at 450hz? Minidsp hd 2x4 behave differently when cross at 450hz vs 80hz?

Edit: The amps are Parasound A23.

Thanks!

 

[daftcombo]

Could it be that the high-pass removes port shuffling?

 

[Pdxwayne]

Could it be that the high-pass removes port shuffling?

Thanks for checking! The port's of my speakers are stuffed, so unlikely is due to port shuffling.

I wonder if it is minidsp related....

If I use minidsp to only crossed at 80 Hz, the perceived harshness was there. Once I go back to DAC direct to amp, the perceived harshness also less.

 

[DonH56]

Could be the miniDSP, or limitations of the amplifier, but more likely IMO is that by high-passing you are eliminating distortion in the speakers that generates higher-frequency energy. Bookshelf speakers in general are notorious for extending the bass response beyond what some of us (maybe just me) consider reasonable at the expense of distortion. That extended bass response, on paper matching a lot of larger tower and "full-range" speakers, comes at a cost.

 

[Pdxwayne]

Could be the miniDSP, or limitations of the amplifier, but more likely IMO is that by high-passing you are eliminating distortion in the speakers that generates higher-frequency energy. Bookshelf speakers in general are notorious for extending the bass response beyond what some of us (maybe just me) consider reasonable at the expense of distortion. That extended bass response, on paper matching a lot of larger tower and "full-range" speakers, comes at a cost.

Thanks for the feedback.

I think other than minidsp itself that could contribute to harshness, what you said definitely makes sense. It could be a combination of factors.

When I used to have 7.2 setup, I played around with crossover points for the subs.
Indeed, crossing the subs higher, thus reduced the distortion of the speakers, help with reducing sensation of harshness.

 

[Jimbob54]

Thanks for checking! The port's of my speakers are stuffed, so unlikely is due to port shuffling.

I wonder if it is minidsp related....

If I use minidsp to only crossed at 80 Hz, the perceived harshness was there. Once I go back to DAC direct to amp, the perceived harshness also less.

And if you leave the MiniDSP in the loop but turn off any filters, so its doing nothing? Still harshness?

 

[Pdxwayne]

And if you leave the MiniDSP in the loop but turn off any filters, so its doing nothing? Still harshness?

I did many things last two weeks with many chains and two sets of speakers and now I don't remember if I have done such comparison with my Paradigm speakers.
: (

As I recall, I have done that with my 3 ways speakers and minidsp was the brighter one as compared to using Onkyo AVR and Marantz AV preamp. But the source was not the same.....It was via roku box vs via gustard x16.

For Paradigm speakers, when I noticed harshness, it was with crossover and eq. Cross was at 80hz. Eq was to eq down 650hz and 162hz.