Kleos Sibilance

HW,

With all due respect (I like the design of your tables), I purchased a Scoutmaster from my dealer with a Shelter 901. I had bad sibilance distortion, and went on a quest remove all of the distortion. I tried three cartridges, an Ortofon Jubilee, Benz L2 and finally an AT33PTG. I was never able to get rid of the distortion on the JMW9sig.

I did contact VPI, and Mike who I believe is one of your lead techs did take the time to try and help me. I actually mailed him my tonearm, along with the Ortofon Jubilee and Benz L2 for him to professionally setup so that the distortion would be gone. I would be lying if I said I was surprised that when I received the arm back with the Benz setup by Mike that there was no change to the sibilance distortion at all.

Finally, Mike told me by email that "The two MC's really wanted a more massive arm setup, like the new Classic has."

I can read between the lines here, as to me this is finally an admittance that the JMW9 family of tonearms cannot properly accommodate MC cartridges. Instead of rolling the dice with a "more massive" VPI arm, I chose to change platforms altogether.

"The JMW-9 is the exact geometry or the Rega, the Rega drops into the hole cut in the chassis and works perfectly - more bad information."

Apologies HW, did not see that in any of your documentation.

"There is no such thing as a standard mounting - every damn arm is different unless the company is actually trying to make it easier for customers to use other arms if they want to - like VPI did with the JMW-9 mounting. "

True, but the Rega and SME mountings are more(far?) common than any others.

"Robob can buy whatever table he feels like buying and I hope he enjoys it but if he cannot get a Kleos to work in the arm he has then he has no concept of how to setup a unipivot. It is different than a fixed bearing arm."

The dealer initially set it up and I have tried many things, except the fluid. Interesting that since you knew I was having issues and publicly asking for help, why did you not have someone email me?

"Isn’t easier to send us an e-mail and ask us what works perfectly in the arm we make!!!!!"

That is one way to do it. The other is to buy the cartridge you want and if it does not work ask for help. If it cannot be made to work then one must go back to the previous cart, buy something else, or replace the arm. In this case I really wanted a Delos or a Kleos. The VPI cart lacked the clarity and high end of the Shelter and the Shelter lacks fullness in the midrange.

HW, I appreciate you taking time to reply. We wish J. Carr would chime in.

Thanks,
Robert

someone mentioned earlier of a standard mount, i do not know if that means an SME mount will work for more tonearms than just SME, Rega mount etc.

I just know my friend definitely knows what he is doing and he said the problem is most likely the arm and not the cartridge. WE tried anti skate and that was much worse. Adding the headshell weight deadened the sound.

I did not even know the mass of my JMW 9 as it is not listed anywhere. I cannot find the effective length and other information on this arm. Why isn't this sent with the table and arm?

Another question is if some cartridges work with the JMW 9, why not list them somewhere so I don't waste $1,500.00 on a cartridge that is not compatible with the arm. Maybe I could have spent my money better elsewhere. Another question is why would a VPI dealer sell a cartridge that will not work well with a particular arm? That is not a very good VPI dealer, not good for VPI either. I would think VPI would want happy customers and not frustrated ones.

I also cannot believe that the founder of VPI would call VPI owners and others chiming in on this thread morons. I have read numerous threads posted on the gon regarding JMW 9 tracking concerns, I am not the only one voicing concern. My cartridge is only a polite Benz, others have spent considerably more and are having similar issues. If I would have known this, i could have picked up and older used table, installed a Triplanar on it and been way ahead of the game. I could have put a 100 dollar cartidge on it and it would probably sound better than where I am at right now.