I need help diagnosing a sibilant problem on vinyl

There many possible causes, including but not limited to:
- inadequate VTF
- sub-optimal anti-bias adjustment
- sub-optimal zenith alignment
- sub-optimal SRA (VTA) adjustment
- overload or shearing distortions in the phono stage
- dirty or damaged records
- inability of the Elys to accurately trace/reproduce HFs
- vibrations at certain frequencies exciting resonances in the cartridge body, tonearm or other components

Searches within the Analog Forum for "sibilant", "sibilants" and "sibilance" turn up 17, 6 and 66 threads respectively. There's already a wealth of information/opinion out there. Any one of the hundreds of posts on those threads might (or might not) provide a solution to your problem.

Truth be told, reproducing sibilants cleanly, especially on inner grooves, is one of the most difficult challenges for a vinyl setup. I have a few especially challenging LPs that bring virtually any analog rig to its knees (and send people screaming from the room with hands over their ears). I've only heard these LPs reproduced cleanly a few times. It can be done, but not easily or cheaply.

Btselect,

Thanks for asking. For clarity, I didn't mention records that are hard to track. I mentioned records whose HF's (particularly sibilants) are difficult to reproduce cleanly. These are not the same thing, since systems may distort HFs even when the stylus traces them perfectly.

Even distortions that sound exactly like mistracking are often not so. Some phono stage distortions can mimic mistracking even to experienced, professional ears. Frequent contributor Atmasphere has described this on several threads.

A few example LPs:

HARD - Alison Krauss, 'Live at Union Station', MOFI reissue
The inner grooves challenge many systems, though they play cleanly in mine.


REALLY HARD - 'La Boheme' with Renata Tebaldi, London OSA 1299
Mimi's aria at the end of side 1 distorts/congests on most systems. This is one LP I use to test any visiting component or potential upgrade in my own system. I've only heard it play truly clean a few times.


ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN IMPOSSIBLE - Rene Clemencic et al, "Les Plaisirs De La Renaissance, Danses Et Chansons", Harmonia Mundi HMU 963
The last two tracks on side B will drive nearly any system into fingernails-on-blackboard distortions/congestions. I can empty a room full of audiophiles just by pulling this LP off the shelf, lol. I've heard it play cleanly exactly once, in my system but with a better tonearm than my TriPlanar VII (which is no slouch). Every component in the system must be top class to avoid distorting the closely spaced harmonics of Clemencic's counter-tenor, an alto recorder which doubles him and the many echoes in the stony room where this was recorded. IME, this LP is the acid test for a system's ability to sort out tightly packed upper mids and highs. Try it if you dare. ;-)

Doug, There's not too many adjustements you can make with Rega arm. Proper alignement, VTA and nothing more to adjust there.

Regas aren't the most adjustable arms, but in addition to alignment one can certainly tweak VTF and anti-bias. IME, these are the three tonearm adjustments most likely to affect (distort) the reproduction of sibilants.

My prime suspect is the cartridge, but before dropping money on an upgrade it would be prudent to eliminate user adjustments.

One more possible cause: a dirty stylus. Is the stylus cleaned after each side (preferably with the Magic Eraser method?)

John_Tracy - excellent post. Concur with you on all points (and with Wc65mustang).

HF ringing and sibilance are different phenomena. Calling the first one "sibilance" is a common misunderstanding and may engender further confusion.

"Sibilance" is the collective phonetic term for a family of sounds made by the human voice. A single example or type of sibilance is called a "sibilant" (plural, "sibilants"). Sibilants occur in nearly all human languages; therefore, so does sibilance.

A formal definition:

Sibilance is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together; a consonant that uses sibilance may be called a sibilant. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip, and Jeep, and the second consonant in vision.

Credit: Wikipedia, which has a comprehensive and well annotated discussion

An audio system may distort sibilants. If it distorts them all, it may be generically said to distort sibilance.

Complaints that a system has too much "sibilance" are mis-stated; a system has as much sibilance as there are sibilants on a particular recording - no more, no less. What a system may have is the inability to play some or all sibilants without distortion. The possible causes of this distortion are many, as my previous posts and John_Tracy's latest have emphasized.