Vinyl Asylum

Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

Return to Vinyl Asylum

Message Sort: Post Order or Asylum Reverse Threaded

Question about sibilance and mistracking

70.36.232.204
Posted on January 28, 2015 at 00:10:58
Mr Blue Sky
Audiophile

Posts: 909
Location: Central California
Joined: May 23, 2003
 In the case of the following:

New records play exceptionally clean with no audible mistracking or sibilance.

Used records play both exceptionally clean with no audible mistracking or sibilance and also with the occasional presence of audible mistracking and sibilance.

...is it safe to assume that the following is true?:

The fact that an arm and cartridge will play new or clean records with no signs of mistracking indicates that the arm and cartridge are likely tracking and performing in an acceptable manner. The mistracking you are hearing on some records is probably groove damage from those who have abused or worn out these records previously. If an arm wasn't performing properly, you would hear this on new vinyl with pristine grooves immediately.

 

Hide full thread outline!
    ...
RE: Question about sibilance and mistracking, posted on January 28, 2015 at 02:15:24
jbcortes
Audiophile

Posts: 1399
Joined: July 6, 2000
 If you had the odd sibilant record or mistracking you could assume it's the record.
Considering you're posting here, it means the problem is recurrent enough to signal a potential problem. After checking you're not tracking too lightly, the best thing would be to make sure you can track the most basic outer tracks of a test record.
JB

 

RE: Question about sibilance and mistracking, posted on January 28, 2015 at 02:55:43
BCR
Audiophile

Posts: 2446
Location: connecticut
Joined: April 7, 2009
 Are the records the same thickness? The sibilance problem is usually fixed when you adjust the vta down on the rear of the cartridge.

 

RE: Question about sibilance and mistracking, posted on January 28, 2015 at 05:58:38
Dave Pogue
Audiophile

Posts: 11689
Location: DC Area
Joined: October 9, 2001
 Yes, but In addition to groove damage, the used record may simply need cleaning on an RCM or equivalent.

 

RE: Question about sibilance and mistracking, posted on January 28, 2015 at 08:26:42
SgreenP@MSN.com
Audiophile

Posts: 3538
Joined: April 23, 2007
 with my arm/cartridge, I don't know what mistracking is.

 

RE: Question about sibilance and mistracking, posted on January 28, 2015 at 09:57:32
John Elison
Audiophile

Posts: 23900
Location: Central Kentucky
Joined: December 20, 2000
Contributor
  Since: January 29, 2004
 Why do you have the same system listed four times?

 

Quadraphonic? (nt), posted on January 28, 2015 at 11:39:27
1973shovel
Audiophile

Posts: 10117
Location: Greenville SC
Joined: February 25, 2007

 

mistracking can cause permanent damage, posted on January 28, 2015 at 12:20:32
JKT
Audiophile

Posts: 613
Location: Midwest
Joined: November 26, 2002
 When a cart. mistracks it looses contact with the groove wall. The process of reestablishing contact is not gentle and can result in permanent damage. I know. Some yahoo "borrowed" some of my records back in the day without my knowledge and played them on a cheap Dept. Store player. This type of damage sounds like a grungy distortion mostly affecting the highs in highly modulated passages. The inner grooves are particularly susceptible to this kind of damage. This was widely reported back in the heyday of vinyl as the reason to error on the side of too much tracking force rather than too little.


"It is better to remain silent and thought a fool, then speak and remove all doubt." A. Lincoln

 

Ah! Good point! ;-) /nt\, posted on January 28, 2015 at 13:41:40
John Elison
Audiophile

Posts: 23900
Location: Central Kentucky
Joined: December 20, 2000
Contributor
  Since: January 29, 2004

 

Or the records just sounded that way from the beginning, posted on January 29, 2015 at 05:34:59
Biff
Audiophile

Posts: 7527
Location: Portland, Oregon
Joined: January 27, 2002
 I have many albums cut too "hot" and are spitty as hell.

 

RE: mistracking , posted on January 29, 2015 at 09:18:09
escapist
Audiophile

Posts: 108
Joined: October 24, 2013
 Quoting here from a 2005 post that I go to for reference:


Re: Question about mistracking...

Posted by Peter Olofsson on June 5, 2005 at 14:15:57

In Reply to: Question about mistracking... posted by karmaceutical on June 5, 2005 at 11:30:53:

From my own experience, records that have been damaged by mistracking seem to have a certain kind of crackling noise that surrounds the music, and the noise "follows" the dynamics, meaning that it intensifies as the music gets louder and more complex.

Mistracking in the actual playback of the recording sounds more like the distorsion in a guitar amp, to me. I bought a SS copy of the Shure TTR 115 test record (from 1977), and it contains examples of flute, harp and orchestral bells. On the flute tracks especially, mistracking sounds like an overdriven tube amp, (2nd harmonic distorsion, I believe).

 

RE: Question about sibilance and mistracking, posted on January 30, 2015 at 13:00:15
David Shreve
Audiophile

Posts: 95
Joined: January 26, 2001
 Some possibilities: some recording microphones emphasize sibilance; an imbalance between skating and anti-skating forces leads to weak tracking force against one wall of the groove and this can result in mistracking and sibilance.

 

Page processed in 0.031 seconds.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]