Killing sibilance distortion - VPI & Jubilee

I have. My point is, even with a perfect setup, some listeners are very sensitive to the distortions in vinyl playback and that he may never get it where it needs to be. I've never had a properly set up front end with sibilance or distortion that wasn't related to the recording. It may be there but I don't hear it.

To me that sure doesn't sound like run of the mill sibilance - it sounds like some pretty serious distortion that Goatwuss has every right to want to be rid of. I don't agree that he is just sensitive to sibilance and may never find satisfaction with vinyl playback. Something is wrong with his setup or his copy of that record. The only records I have that sound nearly that bad are damaged ones, and they don't get played more than once. If we can't agree that distortion of this level is objectionable (and suggest that members look to digital if they find it as such), why are we wasting our time discussing, ad nauseum, tiny differences orders of magnitude smaller than this?

Zhenya, it was just a thought and nothing more based on his comment that the P5 sound really good on the sibilants. I inferred he was still hearing them. Maybe not. It's not worth debating.

Zhenya,
I think we can all agree that the amount of sibilance emphasis/distortion is not normal.
While I don't own that particular AKAUS record - I do own the other Mo-Fi 3 LP live set (mastered using the same system) and Kraus' sibilants are nothing like those recordings when played via the Ortofon Jubilee (in the Phantom).
One of the hallmarks of the Jubilee's sound is it's clean tracking and un-accentuated treble.
Since all 3 cartridges exhibit the same problem to varying degrees, it's hard to escape the conclusion that the JMW arm has some tendency to HF tracking instability. Is there any damping adjustment with this arm?

Hi,

Zhenya, thanks for backing me up on this! Sibilance distortion bloze :-/

To clarify about this particular track, it is a good test for distortion because it has Kraus's sharp S sounds in it, and importantly this particular track is the last on the side in the inner grooves. Tracking records in the inner grooves is MUCH harder than the outer grooves, especially with sibilants.

To clarify about what I heard with the Rega P5/RB700/Benz Ace setup, the sibilance performance was good but still not perfect. I would say it was similar to my results with the jmw9sig arm and the AT33PTG cart. Since my results with a Benz cart better than the Ace were worse than this, maybe I can infer that the RB700 arm tracks better than the JMW9? Or - maybe not, since the brand new Benz carts have a redesigned stylus (Gyger I think), and maybe this accounts for the difference?

Out of several completely different setups that I've heard with this track, I still haven't heard one with no distortion. The main thing that I've learned, and IMO the main take-away of this thread is:

Even if a given table/arm/cartridge is setup perfectly, you cannot assume the sibilance performance will be good. Dial in the setup roughly, double check it, and then listen to sibilant records. If you hear distortion, then it is the limits of the equipment, and no amount of tweaking the setup will fix it.

Tobes, the Jmw9sig has oil damping, and I've tried various levels of oil, from none, to 3/4 full, and I didn't hear any difference.

My challenge to anyone who claims their setup has no sibilance distortion, is to get this record (it's a good record if you like AK), and record and post the track. I would be very interested to hear a recording of this with no sibilance distortion (similar to the digital track that I posted above). To make the recording, all you need to do is plug your turntable into a line-in on your computer, and use the free Audacity software to record.

AK record: http://www.musicdirect.com/product/79215