Vinyl Asylum

Posted by olddude55 (A) on March 24, 2012 at 11:34:27

In Reply to: RE: Less tracking error. posted by John Elison on March 24, 2012 at 10:21:18

The Grace wasn't exactly spitting like an angry cat. I was in love with it until one song on one album came up sibilant as hell. Once that happened I started listening for it all the time and things went downhill from there.
I replaced it with an AT150MLx which did a much better job of taming the sibilance on that particular song (it was "Don't Break the Heart" from Laura Cantrell's When the Roses Bloom Again. The track is mid-side, where tracking error is probably the greatest) but it was still spitty.
I moved the AT to a Rabco arm and all the sibilance was gone except for two instances. To my mind, removing the 2-degrees of error (or whatever it is) from the pivoting arm smoothed out those sibilants.
Now, with the Terminator arm and Shure V15III/JICO SAS combo, all but one instance of sibilance is gone from that track and what's left is barely audible. I hear it because I listen for it. Can't be helped.
As far as the source of sibilance, I think you're first guess is right. It's the recordings themselves. It seems to be a problem on recordings in which the vocals are mixed loud and "forward."
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