Killing sibilance distortion - VPI & Jubilee

Going with Dcstep's suggestion:
what about listening to the Eagles Album: "hell freezes over", side 2, 1st cut, 'tequila sunrise' on Simply Vinyl, S180 VINYL LP.

Might just be we then can talk about OGI (outer groove distortion)also?
I get definitely more sibilants with analogue, when compared to the CD.
(At least you'll get a break from listening to A. Krauss :-)
A.

I am wondering if you know of any surefire path to nail sibilance, IGD and tracking without spending a massive amount of money.

Now I here that Doug found his arm can pass the IGD trick.
Must be Doug's alignment skill, yes :-)

Nope. FWIW, here's my experience...

My Shelter 901 suffered unacceptable IGD and nothing I did helped. Not multiple alignments. Not even changing from an $800 OL Silver to a $4K TriPlanar.

My first change that profoundly reduced IGD was switching to a ZYX Airy 2. The Airy 3 was better, and two higher models (Atmos and UNIverse) produce no IGD that I can hear on nearly any record (assuming the rest of the system is up to snuff).

ZYX's former US distributor, Sorasound, is selling off their remaining stock at deep discounts. An Airy 3 is now just $1895 (I paid $800 more for mine). The Atmos is just $2495, a huge bargain for a cartridge that comes close to the top class. An Airy 3 or (especially) Atmos would address your IGD and sibilance problems (to the extent any cartridge can). They'd also provide a major performance boost vs. your existing cartridges. An Atmos would be a stupendous upgrade, too much cartridge for your rig at the normal price. I only recommend it because of the sale. (A UNIverse would be overkill in your system and irresponsible of me to recommend, even at a discounted price.)

Lest anyone think I'm pandering to ZYX, I'll add that Dynavector XV-1S, Lyra Titan i and Transfiguration Orpheus also have no IGD problems in my system, and they all rival the Atmos in playback quality. But I don't think they're available at Sorasound's fire sale prices. I'm pandering to value.

Upgrading the drive of your TT should also help with HF distortion and will reduce distortion generally. Short wavelengths (high frequencies) are very vulnerable to distortions in the time domain, which is what TT speed control is about. Consider the SDS or some controller if you don't already have.

Hi Doug,
what is interesting here, that those ZYX carts have 15cu quoted, and Micro-ridge styli.
Correct me if this is wrong.

All these carts (Japanese) quote the cu at 100Hz and that means at least x 1.5 for the 10Hz value, to compare it to the rest.
So the ZYX compliance is then: ~ 22.5 at 10Hz. This would make sense as far as my own findings go with sibilants related to compliance.

The Needledoctor quotes the Jubilee spec:
"Compliance, dynamic, lateral 12 µm/mN" ------
My own old manual states 16 µm/mN!
So take your pick, but it aught to be at 10Hz and therefore a big difference to the ZYX's.

Just to clarify an earlier post.

The Universe is not the clearest and least congested cartridge on the planet.

I have 2 MM and 13 MC cartridges (Universe among them) here used with 4 different tonearms and there are at least 2 cartridges which easily surpass it.

Interested readers please send me a private email for more details.

Thanks.

Just to clarify Audiofeil's post about my post:

A. He's a dealer with a financial interest. Nothing wrong with that, but he should include a disclaimer when posting opinions about the superiority of his products vs. those of competitors.

B. There may be 2 (or 1, or 50, or 0) clearer and less congested cartridges. I can only speak about the ones I've heard, obviously. If the UNIverse is only #3, maybe I should move up. Are #1 or #2 available for < $4K?

Axel,

ZYX does use a micro-ridge stylus, and its ridges have the smallest contact radii of any stylus I know. (Audiofeil, please correct me if I'm wrong!) IMO this is a direct reason for its ability to trace smaller groove modulations.

If a stylus is physically larger than the curve it's trying to follow, it will contact only the two tops and never reach the bottom - producing a sort of clipping distortion. The finer the stylus, the higher the frequency it can trace accurately.

The finest styli of all are the cutting styli that make records in the first place. In theory we should be using them for playback too, though I wouldn't bet much on the lifespan of our records if we tried. ;-)

ZYX quotes seperate figures for lateral (15cu) and vertical (12cu) compliance. Whether those are at 100Hz or 10Hz I've never seen in any literature, but I understand what you're saying. (Of course for tracking sibilants, the compliance at 10kHz would be even more interesting!)