Kleos Sibilance

I'm interested to hear how things work out with the SME 309. I'm considering moving to that arm myself w/ my Michell Orbe. Either that or a Rega RB1000.

Hi Robob,

I unfortunately don't have the solution to your problem, but I've struggled with sibilance distortion quite a bit as well, and I have a long thread about it. Maybe some food for thought in it somewhere?

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1245595534&openfrom&1&4&&st0

(Sorry, the sound clips and photos aren't up on the server anymore)

I don't believe the RB1000 has adjustable VTA. If I decided to move forward with that arm, I would probably go with the shim-based approach. Once I get VTA roughed in for an arm/cartridge I don't usually mess with it too much, and I can buy R. Gandy's position that the increased rigidify is more important than more easily adjustable VTA.

No, the Orbe doesn't have the plinth, it's the spider edition. The way it works is there is a metal sub-chassis piece that has springs built in which sits on the kind of triangular piece. Where you can see what looks like black cylinders, these are actually just covers as there are adjustable springs underneath, where you turn a little knurled knob to adjust spring damping. The oil pumping platter bearing is seated in the metal sub-chassis.

I'm not sure about their perspective on plinth vs no-plinth - I think it just comes down to user preferences. What I do know is that the plinth can be added or subtracted at any time, but I'm fine without it.

Not to go too far off topic - but my understanding is that several mm of difference in tonearm base height only changes SRA by fractions of a degree. I know that others have had different experiences, but I have not heard these minute changes in SRA angle make a major difference to the quality of sound.

There's still time, I suppose, but for me it's pretty far down my laundry list of things to worry about!

Tzh21y - I agree with Rob on the RB300. It's an excellent arm for the price, but I don't think that you'll find it up to the task of completely eliminating sibilance distortion.

If you want to try Rega, I would suggest giving the RB1000 as it supposedly has much higher bearing quality and tolerances.

HW,

With all due respect (I like the design of your tables), I purchased a Scoutmaster from my dealer with a Shelter 901. I had bad sibilance distortion, and went on a quest remove all of the distortion. I tried three cartridges, an Ortofon Jubilee, Benz L2 and finally an AT33PTG. I was never able to get rid of the distortion on the JMW9sig.

I did contact VPI, and Mike who I believe is one of your lead techs did take the time to try and help me. I actually mailed him my tonearm, along with the Ortofon Jubilee and Benz L2 for him to professionally setup so that the distortion would be gone. I would be lying if I said I was surprised that when I received the arm back with the Benz setup by Mike that there was no change to the sibilance distortion at all.

Finally, Mike told me by email that "The two MC's really wanted a more massive arm setup, like the new Classic has."

I can read between the lines here, as to me this is finally an admittance that the JMW9 family of tonearms cannot properly accommodate MC cartridges. Instead of rolling the dice with a "more massive" VPI arm, I chose to change platforms altogether.