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My battle with sibilance.

At the minimum sibilance is annoying to me. Its only present on a small percentage of my records. However today I wanted to see if I could improve it. The song in question is Men at Work's "Down Under". The cartridge is an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze retipped by Soundsmith. I went through a lot of the protocols for abating annoying sibilance.
1.My anti skate was not optimally set so I thought and I adjusted to less using a dead spot on a test record. I know some people don't agree with this. I tried Soundsmiths method but until I see a video I won't understand it.
2. I adjusted my VTA to at least 20 degrees. I realized it was off. It was set at 12-15 degrees. I know the Shibata stylus is sensitive to VTA.
3. I checked the VTF and it was set at the manufacturers suggestion at 2.5 grams. Which is dead in the middle of 2.3 to 2.7. I adjusted to 2.62. A lot of people think the higher range is optimum.
3. I made sure my stylus was absolutely clean.
Guess what? After all this, the sibilance was less but still there. As a check I listened to the song in streaming and it was in the recording!!! However not as bad as my record before my TT adjustments. So I'm happy now my TT might sound better on other recordings. Anyway I hope my fellow members here have had some success on sibilance and maybe some will benefit from what I did.

blueranger

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old_ears
56 posts
 
    Ok, I dug up the Men From Down Under (Business As Usual, US Columbia print) and washed and vacuumed them throughly, and still they were working...at jackhammering my AT540ml cart in the air on the opening cut.  Not the Men's fault; deformed lip and mold, etc.
   Further tracks in, no vocal sibilance (but very close), the cymbals decay though just blended together. Played @ about 70-80Db.  Fluance RT85 with the upgraded cart, Mani phono pre, Pioneer Elite 803 in 2ch, Vandersteen 2ci, HSU sub.
  Had to quit before taking RickyLee for a spin cause the cat came up from the basement to complain. (anything over -30db amp and he's gone)  And I'm usually more dancing to "Danny's All Star Juke Joint" than critical listening anyway.
  My own recent sibilance annoyance came with Magro Timmons' voice on the highly regarded "Trinity Session"...CD. It's the only example I've noticed on my headphone separate system: Arya, Jot2, Bifrost2, Oppo85. Need to rip it and see if usb input "cures" it.  No cat issues!
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