Annoying Sibilance Problem

Silvergsx,

You need to tell us about your phono stage and its gain and impedance characteristics before anyone could recommend a cartridge. Might be wise to start a new thread (or search old ones) for that. In general, as several have stated, a line contact or micro-ridge stylus will provide a quantum leap in HF clarity and reduction of inner groove distortion.

I agree with Marakanetz that a P5 may not be an upgrade vs. your present rig, though it will certainly be very different.

Ugabevo,

Those are interesting results. Your speculation that the least costly system played that LP most acceptably due to lower resolution may be correct, in a general sense.

Was the amplification in that system entirely or primarily solid state? Were the tweeters a soft dome type? Were the interconnects and speaker cables either very entry level and/or shielded? Was the TT driven by a rubber(y) belt?

Any of the above can contribute to the smothering of subtle harmonic information. They often don't so much distort HF harmonics as simply bury them, leaving a clean but often colorless presentation. Strong fundamentals but little individuation of instruments and voices. I could name names, but I still have a few friends left here. ;-)

A system that's good enough to pass most HF harmonics but isn't quite good enough to do so without distortion might easily sound worse. Frustrating hobby we got here...

I think there is no absolute answer to this problem. The only way to get around it is to try different options and see what works well. The reason why i said this is that I have a few jazz/female vocal discs that exhibit this problem, and it took me months trying to fix it, including re-alignment, changing tone arms, cartridges, turntable, preamp, amp...after consulting with various reputable dealers, users, reviewers, and each of them gave different answers, and different solutions work for different situations.

Regarding Ugabevo's experience, I do encounter it recently as well. My Audio Technica AT33PTG cartridge has a extremely small stylus tip, and with its high compliance, when mated with a low mass arm (SME 3009), it tracks extremely well. Never exhibits a trace of sibilance distortion when playing those problematic discs, but it does show that on those problem-causing passages, the sibilance is heavily emphasized (maybe due to pressing or recording..i dont know).

On the other hand, a Stanton 681 EEE MKIII with a japanese Shibata aftermarket stylus (bought from LP gear) has a much larger tip, a bit less compliance, when mated with a medium mass arm (rega 250B with techno weight & Pete Riggle VTF adjuster) also track those discs ALMOST as clean, but it is a little less smooth or resolving.

My Lyra Helikon has a tip size somewhere in between the AT and the Stanton. On my Phantom is very detailed, but it CAN have a hint of distorted sibilance once in a while.

I did try different combinations of these cartridges and tone arms, but these combos works best together.

So there you see, perhaps with different stylus tip masses, shapes, different cartridges ride different portions of the groove, hence behave differently , and compatibility with tonearms also effect how a cartridge performs.

If you try all these options, i am sure you will at least find one solution that works. But keep in mind that there are so many aspects that can effect analog performance so you might not cover them all at the same time..--> Dont drive yourself crazy!! Just look at it as a challenge ..hehehe..(at least now i look at it that way).

After all these problem, I still prefer listening to LPs though.

The phono stage is built into the preamp and can be swapped from MM to MC. The specs from the manual are as follows:

MC - 125mV for 0.5V output from source unit
MM - 125mV for 0.5V output from source unit

The input impedence for line-in is 47K Ohm +/- 5%

Signal to noise ratio - 97dB

The total empiricists "I never liked math guide" to phono stages first asks if you just changed your phono stage. second do you run it through a big tone mellow line stage after that.Which helps as foil.
I switched away from an all tube ARC pre with phono to a cheaper SS Graham Slee Amp 2 using a H.O. Dynevector 20 X m.c.. I only did this because the ARC had a noise floor at eye level and it had the kind of gain that could not be tamed. The new one is SS and while supremely quiet and toned up by a two 6SN7 line stage (Great rich tubes) I had the AE line stage hot rodded. As it broke in the sibililants became unbearable. I hung with it and depending on the record it has calmed down considerably with brake in. The voices aren't nearly as bad as massive collections of orchestral strings blaring out the high octaves. I May have to go back to work if I don't get bailed out. Then I will by an SLP-05 and use a separate a boulder phono.

I had a Grado master that had the same problems. Sent Cartridge back and tech made an adjustment and helped some what. A nice older gent. I upgraded tonearms from Rega 600 to Graham 2.2 and isuue was greatly diminished. However still there. The Grado was spectacular in some respects. Ironic it had an uncanny ability the reproduce the female voice when no sibilance was present. I remember one annoying track in particular "Radar Love". Gone to a Benz L2 and sibilance not a problem.