Annoying Sibilance Problem


Ok so here's the scoop.

I've got a Grado Gold mounted on my Technics SL1200 and everything sounds wonderful, except on some recordings I get some pretty nasty distortion on hard T sounds and S sounds in vocals. It's not on every record but when it's there it's very apparent. I can't imagine the records are the problem as some of them are new, but I do not have another table/cart to test that right now.

The funny thing is if I swap the preamp over to mono the distortion is pretty much gone. Any ideas why it's doing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
silvergsx
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.
The specs for the phono stage make no sense? Is there any chance that you are running into the MC input or your preamp is set for MC gain internally? How high is your volume control set ? Is it possible that you're phono stage is overloading?