2. analog
  3. 1242791725

Annoying Sibilance Problem

Ok so here's the scoop.

I've got a Grado Gold mounted on my Technics SL1200 and everything sounds wonderful, except on some recordings I get some pretty nasty distortion on hard T sounds and S sounds in vocals. It's not on every record but when it's there it's very apparent. I can't imagine the records are the problem as some of them are new, but I do not have another table/cart to test that right now.

The funny thing is if I swap the preamp over to mono the distortion is pretty much gone. Any ideas why it's doing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
silvergsx
dgordonl
128 posts
 
Silvergsx,
I had the same problem but also had some distortion with some of my New albumn's that were pressed by CLASSIC...especially the ones by female vocal artists like Diana Krall and Norah Jones.One of my dealers stated that Classic was pressing albums too fast and were creating poor recordings,and even had a hard time getting replacements from the manufracture.I avoid buying Classic labels.
This happened some time ago...They might be back on track with their pressings now,and taking more care in what they are doing.
jaytea
78 posts
 
I had that problem before..and in my expereience, there are so many things can contribute to that sibilance problem. Here are the few things you can do:
1. Check anti-skating: if the sibilance occurs on the left channel, try to reduce anti-skating and vice-versa.

2. If the sibilance occurs on both channel, increase the VTF to the manufacture's max recommendation. If it's still there, maybe the disc you are playing exceeds the cartridge's ability to resolve the signal from the groove.

3. Get a cartridge that is more resolving or track better/ or match better with your tonearm (fine line contact with very very small stylus tip like Audio Technica, Lyra..etc tracks very well)

4. Could be the defective disks. As Dgordonl said..many female vocal recording issued by Classic records exhibit this problem. All but extremely fine line contact stylus cannot track this cleanly no matter how good your setup/alignment is.

5. Also recheck your alignment . This could help reduce it.

Good luck.
axelwahl
788 posts
 
Hi,
so let's share a bit here...

A new recording by Mobile Fidelity... pressing by Classic?: Alison Kraus & Union Station "so long so wrong" side two 'It Doesn't Matter', and even worse 'Find My Way Back To My Heart' are close to unbearably sibilant in my system.

I have tried to track this issue down, and had some expert opinion that: "sibilants are caused by frequencies out of the '[soundssssss] envelope'... (as close I can recall that statement)
I'm not a recording engineer and do not exactly get the full meaning of it, BUT it seems it has to do with a 'phasing' problem in the 3kHz - 7kHz frequency band (during recording, BUT also during playback)

Having said that, I now have checked my cartridge with the 'Ultimate Analog Test LP' by Analog Productions and an oscilloscope according to their instructions.
The result? NOT AT ALL ENCOURAGING!
Two cart parameters are out of spec. by some margin and then some: cross-talk and channel balance (I spare you the details, if interested have a look at the thread: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1242643525 )

So, it COULD well be, that your cart has an issue, which is mostly unnoticeable, ONLY with sibilants, AND in my case orchestra tutti, and massed instruments, i.e. if things get loud and busy. The sounds then get 'smeared' by the phase-incoherence L/R as I currently understand it.

If you can, try another cart and see if it reacts differently. And oh, I assume that your arm set-up is OK, and that you have already tried various alignment-tweaks without any noticeable improvement...

Greetings,
Axel
More to discover