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My battle with sibilance.

At the minimum sibilance is annoying to me. Its only present on a small percentage of my records. However today I wanted to see if I could improve it. The song in question is Men at Work's "Down Under". The cartridge is an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze retipped by Soundsmith. I went through a lot of the protocols for abating annoying sibilance.
1.My anti skate was not optimally set so I thought and I adjusted to less using a dead spot on a test record. I know some people don't agree with this. I tried Soundsmiths method but until I see a video I won't understand it.
2. I adjusted my VTA to at least 20 degrees. I realized it was off. It was set at 12-15 degrees. I know the Shibata stylus is sensitive to VTA.
3. I checked the VTF and it was set at the manufacturers suggestion at 2.5 grams. Which is dead in the middle of 2.3 to 2.7. I adjusted to 2.62. A lot of people think the higher range is optimum.
3. I made sure my stylus was absolutely clean.
Guess what? After all this, the sibilance was less but still there. As a check I listened to the song in streaming and it was in the recording!!! However not as bad as my record before my TT adjustments. So I'm happy now my TT might sound better on other recordings. Anyway I hope my fellow members here have had some success on sibilance and maybe some will benefit from what I did.

128x128blueranger
pedroeb
493 posts
 
This is probably totally off field. Although it could be similar.

In my case I found that a combination of certain close frequencies and intensities interacted to create a tinny sound. To give you an idea of the range, Kiki Dee in particular sounded dreadful.

Two solutions combined to fix the issue.

Firstly I worked on my speakers. Upgrading crossover components plus treating the internals to reduce reflections and adding sound absorption filling so contamination on the rearward movement of the cones was as reduce as far as possible. After all, inward movement of the cone is 50% of the sound.

Secondly I added Supertweeters.

wturkey's avatar
wturkey
722 posts
 
Perhaps try cleaning the record? At this time, I’m going through the pile o records here. The difference is not subtle. Even a very clean record, in appearance, sounds improved after the cleaning. Sometimes there is some nasty stuff on the records that takes a while to dislodge. 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,204 posts
 
@lewm , really? Some speaker manufacturers, to make their speakers sound better at low volumes and reduce sibilance tuned their speakers with a built in Gundry dip. Wilson did this with the Watt/Puppy. It is just another application of Fletcher and Munson's research. I'm not entirely sure but I think the BBC first started doing this in broadcasting or in their monitors maybe both.

It seems that many people here are talking about distortion not true sibilance. 
hshifi
572 posts
 
Hello,
It sounds like you need to cover your tweeter. No, What MC said. Before going to drastic changes to the VTA make sure it is the norm when playing all vinyl. If not, and it isn’t even the majority of your collection I would let it be unless you can adjust VTA on the fly. If not you can change your cables from your phono stage to your preamp to something less bright like a Cardas. I know this is a pain, but so is having to replace some of your collection or getting another TT for dulling some of your collection. I have met people who run MM bronze and also have a black MM. they switch stylus to change the sound. You will have to run the same type of MM to do this. The cartridge you have is one of the best value for money. Also, SoundSmith is second to none. 
baclagg's avatar
baclagg
150 posts
 
I have a song that does this to me. Don’t Come Around Here No More. When Stevie Nicks says don’t it’s a very clicky sounding D. I can hear it on other systems, but mine seems to accentuate it. It’s hard to ignore.
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