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Kleos Sibilance

Hello Folks,

I posted this in a Delos thread but I thought I'd better start it's own thread.

I have a new Kleos in a JMW 9 Signature on a Scoutmaster. I am getting sibilance on vocals beyond what I have heard with either a Shelter 501 II or a VPI Ortofon on the same table. My dealer put the Kleos on the wand I had the VPI cart on. I have gone to 1.8g and did not solve it and I have checked the alignment. I brought the rear of the arm down as well. It may be less pronounced but it is still there. Otherwise the Kleos is quite nice. It has 3 or 4 hours on it now. I do not hear misstracking on high level passages, just sibilance and sometimes some grunge on male vocals. It is not on all vocals but it is fairly common.
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Showing 2 responses by tobes

tobes's avatar
tobes
436 posts
 
FWIW, Fremer reviews the Kleos in the January S'phile - he used it with an Avid Diva II/ SME 309. He certainly didn't experience any sibilance issues - quite the opposite in fact.
Some comments from that review:
"It's performance fresh out the box is better than a fully broken-in Helikon..."
"...cleanly rendered sibilants and shimmering high frequency transients with no hint of edge..."
"..an airy, extended top end that was decidedly not bright or etchy."

To test whether it is a cartridge/arm mismatch, perhaps you could find a friend - or friendly dealer - with an SME or similar and listen before making any decision.
tobes's avatar
tobes
436 posts
 
01-06-11: Goatwuss
I don't believe the RB1000 has adjustable VTA. If I decided to move forward with that arm, I would probably go with the shim-based approach. Once I get VTA roughed in for an arm/cartridge I don't usually mess with it too much, and I can buy R. Gandy's position that the increased rigidify is more important than more easily adjustable VTA.

While rigidity is important, having fixed VTA/SRA you just can't extract everything that's possible from cartridges with exotic line contact stylii.
Perhaps most of your records are the same thickness(?), but mine are all over the place.
IMO having fixed VTA is like having a camera with no adjustment for focus. YMMV.

I only adjust VTA/SRA to compensate for record thickness. It can be really surprising how much adjustment is required to maintain a static VTA over different records - which can be easily set/verified with the Phantom arm's micropoise level.
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