What adjustment is required to get rid of sibilence distortion?

madfloyd

madfloyd

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I'm noticing that I get distortion when there's sibilence on female vocals on enough LPs that I'm finding it hard to blame the LP pressing.

On Saturday my cartridge was carefully adjusted (using a Mint tractor). I've made sure my table and platter is perfectly level. I'm not sure what else to do.

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
Lower the back of your Tonearm. If the cartridge is too tipped up, then the sound can appear quite sibilant.


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Also check your stylus pressure to make sure you are tracking heavy enough for the cartridge you are using.
 
Two great suggestions already on things to check with your setup. If the sibilance is primarily in one channel, increase the anti-skating force if the distortion is in the right channel or decrease if it's in the left channel. If it's generally even in both channels then the anti-skating setting is not the cause of the problem.
 
madfloyd said:
I'm noticing that I get distortion when there's sibilence on female vocals on enough LPs that I'm finding it hard to blame the LP pressing.

On Saturday my cartridge was carefully adjusted (using a Mint tractor). I've made sure my table and platter is perfectly level. I'm not sure what else to do.

Anyone have any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Optimize azimuth and SRA. Setting things level is only a starting point. Chances are the ideal azimuth won't be with the cartridge level, for example. Setting antiskating correctly can help but is more the icing on the cake. I assume you've checked vertical tracking force.
 
zenith first then overhang is where id start. the mint tractor is a PITA, i gave mine away.

when i used the mint and played a record i got some sibilance on every other record (certain stylus profiles are more critical), when i rechecked it against the grahams jig it was way off (to be fair, aligning a carts stylus/cantilever from above with mirrors and jewelers loupes is archaic at worst and iffy at best). I almost never experience sibilance nowadays using a Graham arm with his jig. For his invention Bob deserves a medal, or something more than just a patent.

nowadays i'm playing around with linear trackers again and it's been quite revelatory.
 
The only time I've run into consistent sibilance with LP playback was due to running a certain cartridge at the lower end of it's tracking weight recommendation. Once dialing up additional tracking weight (to the higher recommended range for that cart) the sibilance was not an issue. Where I noticed it most, was in massed strings. Dang that was annoying until fixed.
 
The other thing is are your tubes going? I find if tubes are going microphonic, you'll hear distortion and sibilants in the midrange. The other thing I'd check is there a possibility something is being overloaded?
 
Interesting comments. Rob, I would expect Graham's jig uses one of the long established alignment geometries, so it's doubtful there's anything new there. I agree that precisely setting overhang and offset angle can be a challenge. For that purpose I use a SMARTractor, an expensive device for the individual but which has proven to be a very useful tool. Recently I aligned a Phantom II for a customer, and he was delighted with the results.

Mike, I tend to go a little higher on the tracking force than the middle of the range, but merely increasing it may not be the best solution. Quite a while ago I encountered a system I thought sounded harsh, but upon adjusting the azimuth the highs really cleaned up and the system coherence and imaging improved dramatically, so much so that the edginess pretty much went away, all without adjusting the tracking force. In its initial dead level azimuth position the cartridge had over 150 degrees of phase error at 1 kHz. This was on an Eminent Technology linear tracking arm.
 
bpw said:
I tend to go a little higher on the tracking force than the middle of the range, but merely increasing it may not be the best solution.
Click to expand...

I agree Brian that increasing tracking force might not be the solution, but it was in my particular instance at that point in time.

It's quite possible that what's causing Ian's issue is something entirely different. Hope he gets it sorted out and soon!
 
bpw said:
Interesting comments. Rob, I would expect Graham's jig uses one of the long established alignment geometries, so it's doubtful there's anything new there. I agree that precisely setting overhang and offset angle can be a challenge. For that purpose I use a SMARTractor, an expensive device for the individual but which has proven to be a very useful tool. Recently I aligned a Phantom II for a customer, and he was delighted with the results.

Mike, I tend to go a little higher on the tracking force than the middle of the range, but merely increasing it may not be the best solution. Quite a while ago I encountered a system I thought sounded harsh, but upon adjusting the azimuth the highs really cleaned up and the system coherence and imaging improved dramatically, so much so that the edginess pretty much went away, all without adjusting the tracking force. In its initial dead level azimuth position the cartridge had over 150 degrees of phase error at 1 kHz. This was on an Eminent Technology linear tracking arm.
Click to expand...

I think Ian is using the Doshi phono section with tubes though I might be wrong.
 
There's not a lot to add to all the experienced answers that have already been offered, except that sibilance is a indicator of conflict of the stylus in the groove (usually, but it can also be tubes somewhere in the chain, but it would probably show up elsewhere too) and all of the suggestions offered here can be the culprit(s). My only suggestion is that you might explore SRA, azimuth, and tracking force values farther up, farther down, left, right, greater, lesser, etcetera than what you think "should be normal". It's so often that a stylus is mounted well within tolerance, but still requires an odd or extreme optimization solution. Sometimes a cartridge tilted forward is actually the position that puts the stylus is the correct position in the groove. Good luck expelling the sibilance demon from your system!
 
I would reiterate that you should make sure the stylus is clean. Then definitely try a little heavier tracking force, then VTA/SRA.

Otherwise it could be a tube or cap going bad.
 
Thanks again for all the suggestions.

For the record I am not using tubes anywhere in my system.


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