Gonna have to ditch the Soundsmith Carmen II


I've given this cart the benefit of the doubt and then some, but it's going to have to go. 

the sibilance on s's is just to much. The sound isn't distorted, just way louder than the rest of the vocals. This happens to one degree or the other on all records with vocals. Sometimes it's barely noticeable sometimes it hard to bare. other than the sibilance I love the sound, I love the live nature of the music.  so I hate getting rid of it. 

So so the things I've done and made sure are dead on:

alighnment - that means SRA, VTA, TF, Azimuth, anti skate (per,SS), platter level, checked mounting hardware, checked tunntable . . .etc

my Denon 2x20L doesn't do this.

it may be there is a bad combo with some piece of equipment or loudspeaker and it just doesn't jive with the rest of the rig. 

My system:

VPI prime
Parasound JC3+ Phono pre
PAD phono cables
Decware integrated SET tube amp
Zu Omen Def MKII with Radian tweeter upgrade. 

So the question is what cart, around $1k will give that live dynamic sound, tracks well, but does emphasize the S's?

ones I'im interested in but have no way of hearing:

Ortofon Quintet Black
Audio Technica ART 9
???


last_lemming
Let me answer some of the questions:

I tried lowering VTA ended almost had no affect. I went all the way down just to be safe

I used a Mint protractor first, then I stepped up to a
SMARTractor to align my table. Tried different alignment types too.

I use a fozgometer for azimuth 

I also reached out to Peter as well early on in power and all his advice. He was very nice.
last_lemming
I tried lowering VTA ended almost had no affect ...
It still sounds like an alignment issue. Please explain how you used your alignment gauge to ensure proper tangency. Hint: If you aligned the cartridge body rather than the cantilever, the phono cartridge is probably misaligned. Please also tell us about the gauge you used to measure VTA. Simply raising or lowering the pickup arm at random is an unreliable way to set VTA.

Best MM cartridges right now are the 2M Black and VM760SLC.

If I was buying MC, it would be exactly one of the two you listed. I think those are fantastic choices. If I had to pick one, it would probably be the ART9

Go go for it!