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Turntable sibilance

Okay turntable Yodas, what is the primary cause of sibilance in vinyl replay? Obviously some records are badly cut & it's in the grooves, but I seem to have an inordinate amount of it.

I have a Shelter 501 mk 11 cartridge on a Rega RB 250 arm on a Nottingham Analogue Studios Horizon table. Running vtf at 1.8, but changing it in either direction makes negligible difference. Excuse my ignorance, but how do you change the vta on these arms, & might that be the issue? Setup was done by reputable hi fi store, spirit level says table is flat. The green sliding horizontal tracking adjuster doesn't seem to much either.

Any suggestions would be received gratefully.
houseofhits
Post removed 
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"Crown Studio Reference 1"

I don't know for sure, but your amp may have something to do with your problem. Using pro gear is a mixed bag. You're passive line stage is a really smart move in that it allows you to get around using an inexpensive active preamp, and all the problems they bring. In your case, the benefits of going with a passive are lost. The reason is that your amp has gain controls, and any other number of active features in the signal path. Essentially, its a preamp. If you know someone who will lend you an amp to try in your system, take it and see what happens. You can also experiment with the controls on the amp. For instance, if you have both gain controls set to max, lower them and see if that helps.

Another thing I forgot to mention in my first post is break in. Phono cartridges break in a lot. Far more than any other component. If you don't have at least 100 hours on it, wait until you do before making any decisions.
houseofhits OP
11 posts
 
Re the Reference 1, that's definitely not the problem. I've only had it for two weeks, the problem was the same with the Dynavector SSP/101 I was using before that.

Cartridge break in isn't it, the cartridge was actually bought used from someone on Audiogon. I had the stylus checked recently at a good hi fi store & they concluded it looked pretty good. I suspect VTA. As one of the other posters mentioned, because I have a Nottingham turntable the VTA is adjustable, so I'll try that.
houseofhits OP
11 posts
 
Hey Viridian, I'm in Australia, no nickels. But I'll try the blutack, or find a five gram coin or washer.
kjweisner's avatar
kjweisner
293 posts
 
"Kj...vtf maybe...antiskate...no way."

I agree if indeed it's truly a sibilance issue--and really meant to suggest that what sounds like sibilance might also be some distortion from mistracking. The challenge we all have is diagnosis based on descriptions vs. first-hand review. Probably I should have been clearer on that point--and indeed I doubt that's it. My suggestion about single channel listening should also help rule that out--sometimes finding cure is a process of elimination.
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