Annoying Sibilance Problem

Silvergsx,

Switching your preamp to mono may be helping in two ways:

1. Many preamp mono switches act as HF rolloff filters, so HF problems simply become less audible.

2. Summing to mono may prevent distortions resulting from L and R information that's at the same (high) frequencies but every so slightly out of synch or phase with each other.

It is VERY difficult for an amplification chain to cleanly reproduce two (or more) similar or identical waveforms that should be marching along as individuals, so to speak, without "glomming" them together into a distorted mess. The higher the frequencies and the greater the amplitudes, the tougher it is for the system to keep all the separate waveforms separate. Blending to mono before amplification begins greatly simplifies the job (and the music, naturally).

Your Grado is unquestionably part of the problem, but your amplification from phono stage to power amps may (or may not) also be contributing. Best guidance IMO is to try a more resolving cartridge first, to see how far it gets you and whether or not you like the new direction.

I was going to accuse the Grado as well based on past experience with older, lower cost models, but its been a while, so I decided no.

Wouldn't expect that with a more modern higher cost Grado though still. I have never heard that particular cart set up properly for certain so can't really say still.

What would you guys recommend for a more resolving cart? I'm going to be buying a p5 table this summer and love the idea of the 3 point mounting to assure it's aligned properly for the Rega carts, but the Apheta is out of my price range.

Would the Exact 2 or the Elys 2 be decent alternatives to the Grado?

Obviously the Grado isn't only the brand you can play with and experiment. Purchasing P5 might not solve the sibliance problem or even make it more revealed which none of us know for now.
Jaytea has the right point of steps you should go through to resolve. I'd only add to check stylus/cantilever wear.

I have the same Allison Krauss pressing on Mobile Fidelity, and I have tried playing those same tracks on three diferent turntables with three different cartridges, one which cost several thousand dollars, one costs about $1700 and the other a Rega, about $400.00. Only the Rega in an inexpensive system was able to navigate these tracks. I wonder if it is because this system is so less revealing? This one record has caused me to try everything I can think of over the past several months as I assumed the problem has to be with my system and not the record.