Kleos Sibilance

"Robob, I haven't read all the replies, but I have been suprised to find the same sibilance on the cd-meaning that it was in the recording(overloaded mikes?)."

Thanks, I may have to check that out. Which recording are you referring to? I am getting the sibilance on most lps.

"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. "

As Bill (Audiofeil) said there is no standard mount. However, some arm manufacturers use the SME style slot and some use the Rega hole because those are common. SME has been around for a long time and Rega sells in volume.

Ditto on the lack of VPI documentation. Had I know about the Rega compatibility, I might have tried one of the non-Rega arms that fit that hole.

BTW, I think HW was calling Bill a moron not me. VPI may want to keep in mind that Dual was once the number table. And probably Garrad before them. It's easy to loose one's way while selling lots of product. Ask GM.

Y'all be cool,
Robert
PS: Like a child before Christmas, it is difficult to wait on my new table/arm.

Robert-

Just curious. When you said you checked alignment, how did you determine and set azimuth? Excuse me if you've already answered this question.

He said morons plural, not necessarily directing it at you Robert but he just should not have said that. If that arm will only work best with MM cartridges, why not say something like MM cartridges recommended for the JMW 9, signature etc. It obviously has difficulty tracking with demanding cartridges. I think people should be aware of this so they do not make the same mistake as me. If you just plan on popping on a mm cartridge and listen occasionally, it probably is good enough for others. I just get ticked off when I take my sibilance and distortion ridden records to a friends house, and he plays them on a 30 year old turntable and they sound amazing, no distortion or sibilance. Why is that? He is using a Lyra cartridge as well. It tracks like a train on his table. If you were to see this table, it is not as nice to look at as a VPI, but it sounds great. I have never seen his table come up on the gon for sale. Its an old Mission 774 or something like that.

Before I upgraded from my Scout turntable with the original JMW-9 arm I used a Lyra Argo cartridge and also a Lyra Skala cartridge with the JMW-9 arm and I got excellent sound with no sibilance or other problems.
The Argo weighs only 6.4 grams but it tracked well and sounded great with no added weight on the headshell.

Again, trying to be fair, trying to be unbiased, after reading much, of not all of this thread, I still personally haven't came to any solid conclusions.

My thoughts are, is, or was it truly the JMW Arm to blame, or could it possibly be something else?

I have no financial interest, or gain, to come here to say the JMW Arm is crap, or is it the Lyra Kleos at fault?

Or that maybe the real truth lies somewhere in the middle, that neither are/were at fault, and the playback issues were caused by something else?

As I had hoped Mr J Carr would've participated, as i know he's highly knowledgeable, but I can think back, and remember some words he once said, and I'd like to roughly quote some of his own comments from the far past.

I remember Mr Carr once commenting about Cartridge design, in regards to the many design principals persued, and implemented.

That he once commented about the Benz Cartridges as an example, of being a versatile Cartridge, but with that versatility came compromises in the design.

Compromises, that may have allowed the design to be usable in a variety of conditions (meaning various Tonearms I took this), but perhaps as well a compromise in the optimum performace that could've been achieved.

I don't at all question what he had said, and will not question the truths to those statements, as the man no doubt has forgotten more than I'll ever know about an MC Cartridge.

But with those statements, I perhaps can read between the lines, and understand that he may have also said in a round about way, that with his designs, and Cartridges, that they have been optimized per the "Lyra way", that his Cartridges, to be fully realized may take a little more attention-detail to set up, that his designs won't "candy coat" a presentation-recording, that they will lay bare the "truth", and sometimes in those instances, playback can be heavenly stellar, or laid bare with all it's flaws, and shorcomings. And that also, his designs may be a little bit more particular in the Tonearm they will be paired with.

Others, that as well may share similar revealing traits as these Lyras, could be the top tier ZYX, and I can recall people like Doug D making mention, that to extract the best playback from a Cartridge like the ZYX UNIverse, that any old Tonearm wasn't going to cut it.

Is that then a flaw of the Arm itself, or of the Cartridge? Or actually of neither? Just a incompatible mismatch? Mark