I'm putting to rest worrying about sibilance

I’m using very good stuff as it is....not about to spend any more money....I think I’ll just deal with it. I’m not in the camp of mortgaging my house to buy audio equipment lol. My amp is 3 grand, my phono amp is 700, yes the speakers are only 500 but imo very nice ( mind you I also have harbeths @ 2200 & spendors @ 1600.). And my cables were not cheap either. My turntables cost 1500 × 2 (project and music hall mmf7, no slouch) and 1200 for the thorens....so yea I think I spent enough. This does not even include all the cartridges i own and headphones and associated amp(s) and dac and sacd player, and cassette decks etc etc etc, oh and media ......cd...lp....cassettes etc. I mean how much more can ya spend before your wife begins scratching her head and then says well weren’t we supposed to take kids to Disney? Lol.....the sibilance is there and is embedded in the grooves. There is no way of getting rid of it period. I’ll send any one of you my Louis prima record on me and u will see what I mean...it is atrocious! Yes, i agree you may be able to lessen it to a degree by spending more on a line contact or shibata or whatever. My eroica h is an 800 dollar cartridge with a rather nice line contact stylus and I still here it to a degree, it has not magically made it disappear. Also, it is very hard to quantify the severity on a forum as I or you are not directly listening to each others set up. Thus maybe i am exaggerating what I am hearing or you are maybe not as sensitive to the sibilance...who knows really. I understand that Fremer spent over 30k for his current turntable with 2 arms....is that what it will take? Lol

I agree that one shouldn't have to spend so much for a great analog rig, but unfortunately that hasn't been my experience. I started with "budget" tables and carts, like the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon and 2MRed/AT95e. Fast forward a few years and I've finally settled on an analog front end that was ~ $5K total. I found that new tables I considered in the $1200 range still had atrocious platter and motor-pulley runout, and/or bearing play in the tonearms. One $2500 table from a popular U.S. brand had loud platter-bearing noise. There's no excuse for these failings in even a $500 table IMO, but that's what I consistently encountered. I finally have a rig that exceeds the SQ of my digital setup, but I honestly think it absurd that I had to spend that much to arrive there.

Anyhow, I wasn't alleging your problem is lack of expenditure, just that elliptical stylus profiles are probably the worst for mitigating sibilance - even worse than the cheaper conical type IME. 

I've also found that exacting cartridge setup can pay huge dividends. If You're using something like the typical two-point protractor, it might be worthwhile to invest in a Mint LP Best Tractor, or try the free arc-protractor software from this site:
http://conradhoffman.com/chsw.htm

I achieved better tracking and overall SQ using a printed arc protractor from that software. I find it works even better than some of the expensive Dennesen-style protractors. 

Audioguy, you forgot about all of those seismic vibrations that ruin your playback if you don't get one of those isolation platforms. They go right through concrete. They probably even ---- up your tubes not to mention make your toilet flush funny.

Lol, yea I never gave that any thought.....hmmmm

noromance  You are unfortunataly right, I had the same problem with "Pairing" components, I switch another CD player Brand to another less expensive, and I have now a better reading music.  I wonder why companies did not put together the best match of componnets cables and speaakers to have a better music experience. ?

Obtaining a giant can of effective ’siblanc-b-gon’,and using it, consists of a LOW output MC, into a properly specced and applied transformer, and that going into a esoteric oriented RIAA amplifier of medium gain.

the RIAA circuit/amplifier/gain-stages (should be two gain stages, possibly each as passive)... must be built of non magnetic resistive components, with no Mylar, ceramic, or tantalum capacitors. All non magnetic electrolytics, and all non magnetic RCA jacks and so on.

When that is done, combined with the same emphasis and work in the tonearm (good bearings for zero chatter, etc) and it’s connectivity (good wiring, no teflon dielectric, etc, all non magnetic connectivity)...THEN..one can finally get to finding out if the sibilance is in the record (or original recording) or not.

This is done with careful set up of the cartridge, with all of the rest in place.

This is the road to low sibilance. It’s surprising how much it can be the gain stages (as a circuit design) being a problem, and not just the components in the circuit.

the whole thing is the sum of the parts and how it is arranged and then how it is applied. Any one of those steps being missed and you’ll be stuck trying fix a mess that is build into it and unrealized. (meaning -you don’t know what part is at fault, so you’ve no clue which way is up so there is no reference point to begin analysis from--you just spin and throw darts, making mistake after mistake with no end in sight)

If one wants to approach perfection then all the tiny steps must be meticulously applied as a whole set with zero of them missed or ignored.

It’s like you are trying to toss (like blindfolded mini-putt) a ball really hard down a long darkened careening hallway, and bounce perfectly of about a dozen bumpers..and nail the ball into the hole..and never be able to really see any of that pathway you just nailed. Evey inch of following the path must be perfect or the result will be a fail.

In the end, all you can do is play with low output cartridges and see if you can get the compliance of that cartridge to work in the perfected system...and then.. you finally get to hear if sibilance is on the record, or not.

To give you an idea of how rarely it is done to that required level, you can pick any piece of equipment for sale on the 'gon..and then go through them inch by inch. Somewhere near 1 in 50 to 1 in 100 will be built to that required level.

So it's all running in circles in the dark - for the vast majority of us. Never having a clue of how to fix it.