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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.

128x128blueranger
unison77
50 posts
 
Hi Blueranger,

I checked a 'Business as Usual' LP by Men at Work (made in Japan by Epic SONY, 25-3P-370), and its sounds fantastic, though there is a slight hint of HF hardness, but it's still OK. I suspect that your system is much more revealing than mine - I've got a vintage Micro DD8 direct drive turntable with Micro MA-505 arm and Nagaoka MP-500 cartridge, a vintage Sansui AU-517 integrated amp and open baffle Nightingale CTR.2  loudspeakers made in Italy. The system sounds very musical, dynamic and consistent, though not hyperanalytical and hyperdetailed. I am sure that if I hook up my Cary SLI-80 and a ProJect Tube Box DS2 phono preamp, I may hear more sibilance because the latter combo (Cary + ProJect phono preamp) is more open and revealing.  
blueranger's avatar
blueranger OP
719 posts
 
Let us know your results unison77
ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
2,877 posts
 
its sounds fantastic, though
 But yet it's still "Men At Work".........
unison77
50 posts
 
 Too lazy at the moment to swap the gear, but I will report when I do it.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,248 posts
 
@lewm, yes, Wilson did. I know this for a fact as I ran a test on a pair. They just don't talk about it and very few audiophiles actually measure their speakers. 
Loudness compensation you use to find in some preamps was not very versatile as it was only correct at one volume level. But if you tended to listen at one quiet level it worked fine, until the audiophiles trashed it.
I have a preset with a Gundry dip but for some strange reason I have not used it since I got the Sound Labs, haven't needed it.  
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