2. analog
  3. 1426125520

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
pops
2,275 posts
 
+1 Viridian, I have had a cart./tonearm mismatch and could not solve for sibilance - Blackbird cartridge on a hadcock tonearm. Low compliance cartridge and low to medium mass tonearm in my case.

The same cartridge on a vector 4 has no sibilance at all.
houseofhits OP
11 posts
 
You may be onto something there. The arm was rewired with Cardas wire, but unlike every other source in my system, which are dead quiet, there is low level 50 cycles hum (our 50 cycles in Australia is your 60 cycles) with the table. Grounding the earth wire has zero effect. Now I find out that Rega have a system where everything is grounded via the right channel wire.
Seems counterintuitive that an earthing inadequacy would produce sibilance but you're probably right. I might be able to solve two issues with one fix, although not sure how yet.
houseofhits OP
11 posts
 
Sorry the response re tonearm wiring should have been in response to Parrotbee, not Pops.
smctigue1
53 posts
 
I have a 501 II on a Rega as well. I have 9 additional grams at the headshell. It works.
parrotbee
103 posts
 
I recall reading somewhere that Rega arms have problems handling the energy imparted on a moving coil (whatever that means) - on the other hand some reckon it is the only genuinely good bearing out there. There are several good rewire kits out there, and several people that will do the rewiring for you. Do you get on with a good dealer - they may well be kind enough to lend you a phono stage
More to discover