Kleos Sibilance

Hi Geoch,

I enjoied the 12" Reed 3Q on my Raven One but probably I wasn't prepared to the 12" sound .. or to the Ziricote armwand sound .. or the BenzLP with that armwand sound..
I didn't love the additional warm spread on the whole frequencies spectrum
By the way I'm super happy about the result of the Graham Phantom - Benz LP on my TT.
I found this result much more natural and balanced to my ears .. the Graham is faster than the 12" Reed and helps the Benz to trace better than the Reed .. even if I obviously used the Mint for both.
Probably is a compatibility issue.

Curio :
"the Graham is faster than the 12" Reed and helps the Benz to trace better than the Reed"
Maybe it is so, I'm glad that you have found the best arm for your Benz LP. Actually I think the particular arm may well be the best allrounder for most cartridges and thus the safest bet with the minimum risk. Although I must insist that the energy between this cartridge & the arm's headshell is minimum. By this logic you could probably stay lower to your budget, but I agree for your choice of this elevated quality as you can always install almost everything you wish to your Phantom II in the future.
In my set-up the Phantom II was more linear (in the risk of sounding lean) and maybe more neutral-accurate (completely uncolored in the border of being bland) in comparison for my taste, while the Reed 3Q has a fleshy & organic ID (wood tube?) with equal precision (maybe due to it's 12" armtube) and I witness a more delight tonality & by this a more exciting performance overall with my Condor & Goldfinger. Of course I remind you that my priorities in audio are strictly focused to an emotionally oriented performance (and not invisible or perfectly achromatic components as I see no reason for a monitoring listening, let alone that there are not exist such items).
So : Idler drive TT, DHT SET, Full-Range Horns for me & my vicious audio appetite, although I cannot but congratulate you for your new reference caliber tonearm. (The trackability test is an unmistakable indicator for quality & compatibility. The tonality of course is another subject)
Take care & enjoy your system.

I have been trying to tame the silblance and tracking distortion on my scout for quite a while. I have taken the same records played on a scout to a friends house. He has an old Mission table, a very good one. There was no sibilance tracking error and no inner groove distortion on his table at all. He brought over the same alignment tool he used on his table and tried his best to fix it. When he was finished, he said that is the best it will be. Still sibilance and inner groove distortion. He said the same thing that Audiofeil said. Get a better arm and that the arm is not good enough to get the best out of the Benz. I guess unipivots are tough to engineer and the only one he has heard that sounded good was the Graham Phantom. He told me to look into gimble arm such as a triplanar. I cannot see myself drilling my scout to put a triplanar or phantom on it even if i could afford it. My room is always over 70 degrees so I don't buy that argument. A moving magnet cartridge would probably track better on my table. Could it be just a matter of being maxed out, facing reality, plain and simple. Maybe I should try a Rega RB300 and see if the problem goes away. I guess it is a pretty good value.

"Maybe I should try a Rega RB300 and see if the problem goes away. I guess it is a pretty good value."

Ixnay on the Rega. No VTA adjustment unless you buy the Mitchell mod. I believe the Rega's to be common not great.

What is the weight of your Benz? VPI has headshell weights. Call 'em and ask them to send you one. There is also somebody selling something called the Isolator, which is essentially a headshell weight with dampening. Might be worth a try.

As I said earlier, VPI wants HEAVY cartridges.

Good Luck,
Robert

Tzh21y - I agree with Rob on the RB300. It's an excellent arm for the price, but I don't think that you'll find it up to the task of completely eliminating sibilance distortion.

If you want to try Rega, I would suggest giving the RB1000 as it supposedly has much higher bearing quality and tolerances.