--- title: "Sibilance: Why S Sounds Sting and How to Fix It" description: "What sibilance is, how to tell whether the recording, the chain or the headphone is causing it, and the narrow EQ cut that fixes it without killing detail." url: "https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/sibilance/" type: "website" author: "Jakub Charkiewicz" --- > Markdown rendering of https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/sibilance/ > Canonical URL to cite: https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/sibilance/ > Generated from the published page. Text and links only; see the HTML for layout. Breadcrumb: [Home](https://theaudiostuff.com/) > [Glossary](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/) > Sibilance # Sibilance: Why S Sounds Sting, and How to Fix It Sibilance is the harsh, spitting quality that "s", "sh" and "ts" consonants take on when the region roughly between 5 and 10 kHz is exaggerated relative to the rest of the response. It can come from the recording, from the chain or from the transducer, and the three are easy to tell apart once you know what to swap. ## Work it out for your gear [Online Graphic Equalizer](https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/eq-simulator/) A 10-band graphic EQ you can hear in real time over royalty-free music or your own file. Watch the response curve redraw live, then export presets for Equalizer APO, AutoEQ, Wavelet, or Poweramp. ## What is physically happening Fricative consonants are bursts of noise rather than pitched sound, and their energy sits high, mostly between about 4 and 10 kHz depending on the speaker and the microphone. In a [balanced](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/balanced/) system they arrive as articulation: you hear the word clearly and think nothing of it. Lift that band by a few decibels and the same consonants stop being articulation and start being events. They jump [forward](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/#forward) out of the vocal line, they fatigue quickly, and at higher volumes they sting. Nothing has been added to the recording; a narrow region of it has simply been made louder than the rest. ## Why that region in particular The outer ear and ear canal already apply a large boost to sound arriving at the eardrum, with the main resonance somewhere around 3 kHz and further structure above it. Every headphone is tuned against some assumption about that boost, and the assumption is a population average. Your own ear geometry is not the average. Canal length and pinna shape vary enough between people to move the upper resonances by a noticeable amount, which is why one listener finds a headphone beautifully articulate and another finds the same unit unbearable on the same track. [Sibilance](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/#sibilance) is more personal than most tonal complaints, and reviews that disagree about it are often both accurate. ## Finding the cause in four swaps Work through these in order. Each one changes exactly one variable, and the first that removes the problem has told you where it lives. 1. Change the track. Play five or six recordings you know well, from different eras and different producers. If the harshness only appears on two of them, the recording is the cause and no equipment change will fix it properly. 2. Drop the level by 10 dB and listen again. Perceived treble rises with volume, and a good deal of what gets reported as sibilance is a level problem wearing a tonal disguise. 3. Change the source, keeping the headphone. If a different amplifier or converter removes it, the chain is contributing. The most likely culprit is not a "bright" component but a high source [impedance](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/impedance/) interacting with a multi-driver in-ear whose impedance swings, or a Bluetooth connection falling back to a low-bitrate codec. 4. Change the headphone, keeping everything else. If it survives every swap above and disappears here, the transducer has a peak in that region and you are choosing between correcting it and living with it. ## Fitting, for in-ears Before reaching for equalisation on an in-ear monitor, change the tips. This is the highest-leverage adjustment available and it costs nothing. Insertion depth moves the ear canal resonance: seated deeper, the resonance rises in frequency and the whole upper response shifts with it. Foam tips damp the top of the band relative to silicone. A narrower bore reduces treble output, a wider one increases it. It is entirely normal for a headphone to go from painful to correct on a tip change alone, and it is the first thing to try because it is reversible and free. ## The equalisation fix The instinct is to pull the treble down. Resist it, because a treble shelf removes [air](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/#air), cymbal decay and spatial cues across the whole top of the band in order to fix a problem living in a narrow slice of it. The result is a dull headphone that still spits. What works is a narrow cut placed on the offending region. With a parametric equaliser, sweep a moderate boost to find the exact frequency that makes it worst, then invert that boost to a cut of a few decibels with a fairly tight bandwidth. With a ten-band graphic equaliser like the simulator below, the sliders sit on fixed ISO centres, so the practical approach is: start at 8 kHz and take it down 2 to 3 dB. If the problem reads as a hard "ts" rather than a long "sss", try 4 kHz instead. Adjust in small steps with music playing and stop as soon as the sting is gone, because the last [decibel](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/#decibel) of correction usually costs more detail than it buys comfort. The simulator exports to Equalizer APO, AutoEQ, Wavelet and Poweramp, so a curve you settle on here can move to the system you actually listen on. ## Two things not to do Do not buy a warmer source component to correct a transducer peak. It works by dulling everything, including the parts that were right, and it is an expensive way to do what a single filter does better. Do not treat sibilance as evidence of [resolution](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/#resolution). A peak in that band reveals nothing that a flat response conceals; it just makes one narrow slice louder. Genuine detail is audible at every level and does not become punishing when you turn it up. ## Keep reading - [Best IEMs](https://theaudiostuff.com/guides/best-iems/) - [Full audio glossary](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/) - [How we test and score](https://theaudiostuff.com/about/#methodology-title)