Killing sibilance distortion - VPI & Jubilee

"Any dealer who does a setup and leaves it with sibilance isn't much of a dealer or setup expert."

For what it's worth, I agree... though at this stage, I am not convinced that this is setup related. I hope it is, as this means I don't need to spend lots of money to fix it!

What my experience is leading me to believe is that analog equipment, regardless of price, has its limits, and I am running into some of those limits as far as sibilance is concerned.

I have never had an analog front end that has required me to put up with sibilance. That goes for cheap to very expensive setups. Analog certainly has limits that one must accept. What you are dealing with isn't one of them. Perhaps there is something wrong with your arm. VPI can verify that.

Wendell

I have listened to your tracks over and over, and beside distorted sibilance, i THINK the midrange (voices) sounds a tad harsh/brittle/distorted at times, like inner-groove distortion (since I dont have a copy of this on hand, I dont know if the other tracks at the beginning of the records sound better or not, but I have a few discs from the 70s and 80s sound like this at the end of the record, while other discs show no sign of this inner groove distortion)

Also, the Benz and the Ortofon (which happen to have very similar specs regarding compliance, stylus tip/radius) which you have set up carefully, behave pretty much the same playing this track, I doubt that these distortion is a result of misalignment.

These cartridges have output around 0.3-0.4mV, so they are not overloading your phonostage to create these distortion either

I have a strong feeling that this is just your copy (other's might be OK), or your arm/cartridge prone to innergroove distortion.

It would take a highly resolving cartridge mated with an appropriate arm (doesnt have to be expensive) to conquer these distortions.

My Audio Technica AT33PTG with its tiny stylus tip mounted on a SME 3009 Series 2-non improved is an excellent, excellent example, and so is a Clearaudio Maestro on a Moerch DP-6.

Please keep us updated with the result of your turntable/arm checkup and LP testing on other systems.

Have you made sure it is not record damage from a cartridge that had mistracked previously? I have older records that were mistracked from days gone by, and they are damaged forever. I verified when I picked up new copies of records that played perfect, but the older ones still distort with the exact same setup and even with different carts. Make sure before you pull your hair out.

We know its not a bad LP. Goatwuss has stated he gets similar distortions on many LP's. This one is just the example he chose.

If you have the entry level version JMW then I believe it lacks the fluid damping well that comes on higher models.

IME with the Graham 2.2, damping of the bearing is required with some (most) cartridges to avoid distortions of this kind. The JMW (another unstabilized, undamped unipivot) may be similar. The fact that VPI includes damping capabilities on their higher models may confirm this notion.

Just another thought to throw in the mix...