Mpriola - I know exactly what you are talking about.
These 2 tracks are notoriously hard to track cleanly.
MoFi is right - the records are fine. The problem is your setup. By setup, I don't mean your alignment, VTA, VTF or anti-skate. I mean your equipment.
I too had trouble tracking these cuts cleanly. I'm really sensitive to sibilance distortion, and I could hear it on many of my records. I toiled over setup over and over again, had two separate shops setup my deck, and then had VPI themselves set things up.
It never changed.
To track these tracks, and other challenging tracks cleanly, you need an arm/cartridge combination that is up to the task.
In your case, the Exact II is not up to the task of tracking this record cleanly.
You need to ask yourself 2 questions:
1. Is this the only record that you hear sibilance distortion?
2. How much do you care about this?
Based on the answers to the above, should dictate your path going forward. If these is the only record where you hear sibilance distortion, it's probably best just to not worry about it.
Otherwise - You are going to need to spend some money.
The RB700 is a pretty good arm, and I think it can handle the job. If you want to keep the arm, then it's time to start looking into other cartridges.
The tricky thing, is that more $$$ does not equal better tracking. In fact, it's often the complete opposite. I had an Ortofon Jubilee ($2200) and a Benz L2 ($1500) both track like crap. Granted, that was with the VPI JMW9sig arm, which in my experience is prone to sibilance distortion. Maybe in another arm they would have done better?
The best tracking cartridge that I have found so far is the Audio Technica AT33PTG. It tracks the best out of about 10 cartridges that I tried. It is no longer available, but the mark II version is. It's about $550 from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT33PTG-Dual-Moving-Cartrige/dp/B00475S0BU
Switching to this cartridge, and to the Michell Technoarm + Orbe table from the VPI ScoutMaster w/ jmwsig arm improved the sibilance distortion on those tracks by about 85% for me. It's still not perfect, but the vast majority of all sibilance that I was hearing on my other records is gone.
Good luck!
These 2 tracks are notoriously hard to track cleanly.
MoFi is right - the records are fine. The problem is your setup. By setup, I don't mean your alignment, VTA, VTF or anti-skate. I mean your equipment.
I too had trouble tracking these cuts cleanly. I'm really sensitive to sibilance distortion, and I could hear it on many of my records. I toiled over setup over and over again, had two separate shops setup my deck, and then had VPI themselves set things up.
It never changed.
To track these tracks, and other challenging tracks cleanly, you need an arm/cartridge combination that is up to the task.
In your case, the Exact II is not up to the task of tracking this record cleanly.
You need to ask yourself 2 questions:
1. Is this the only record that you hear sibilance distortion?
2. How much do you care about this?
Based on the answers to the above, should dictate your path going forward. If these is the only record where you hear sibilance distortion, it's probably best just to not worry about it.
Otherwise - You are going to need to spend some money.
The RB700 is a pretty good arm, and I think it can handle the job. If you want to keep the arm, then it's time to start looking into other cartridges.
The tricky thing, is that more $$$ does not equal better tracking. In fact, it's often the complete opposite. I had an Ortofon Jubilee ($2200) and a Benz L2 ($1500) both track like crap. Granted, that was with the VPI JMW9sig arm, which in my experience is prone to sibilance distortion. Maybe in another arm they would have done better?
The best tracking cartridge that I have found so far is the Audio Technica AT33PTG. It tracks the best out of about 10 cartridges that I tried. It is no longer available, but the mark II version is. It's about $550 from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT33PTG-Dual-Moving-Cartrige/dp/B00475S0BU
Switching to this cartridge, and to the Michell Technoarm + Orbe table from the VPI ScoutMaster w/ jmwsig arm improved the sibilance distortion on those tracks by about 85% for me. It's still not perfect, but the vast majority of all sibilance that I was hearing on my other records is gone.
Good luck!