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In Reply to: Sibulance Question posted by DannyB on May 6, 2007 at 20:12:16:
Harry doesn't like antiskating, so if you are not using antiskating, the left channel side of the stylus will wear faster than the right channel side. Perhaps you stylus is wearing out.
Follow Ups:
harry never said he doesn't like antiskating. he just doesn't like methods which mess around with the dynamics of the arm. all of his tables incorporate a method to apply antiskate. you know this as well as anyone. as far as the op is concerned, it could be anything from groove wear of the playing, or perhaps vtf is a bit light. i'd recheck all of your settings if you haven't already, and maybe give harry a call and ask his advice.
If DannyB is not using antiskating and his cartridge has significant hours of play, the likely reason for developing sibilance in the left channel only is uneven stylus wear.
you said "harry doesn't like antiskating", which isn't true. he just doesn't like traditional antiskate methods. all of his tables employ a method to apply antiskate. that was the point that i was making.
I am not sure he said "developing". He said he was "getting a bit of sibilance". It could be an important distinction, and might mean he just needs to set up the antiskate correctly. His stylus may not be worn yet, but it means your question about hours is very relevent.
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Well, we won't know all the answers until DannyB responds. However, I got the impression that the left-channel sibilance problem was something new, which had not been there originally when Harry set up the turntable.
Harry is this...Harry is that....The fact that the JMW tonearm does not incorporate a measurable bias control is an undisputable fact.
The fact that they added an anti-skate option is testimony to the fact that bias is important to their marketing base of customers.
I do not want to start flames tonight, but I think flying without instruments is basically suicide. Playing albums without measureable bias control is like flying without instruments.
You don't even need an RS-A1 arm to confirm that it's nonsense.
The very fact that VPI now sells a bias unit is proof that they required one for current and future customers.Flying blind is one thing...liking it is a whole different issue.
Sorry, tubes and everone else I've just offended. Harry Weisfeld's original anti-skating scheme for the JMW arm was elegant and very effective. I have a JMW 10.5 and can assure you that its wire-twist approach works wonderfully well. No inner groove distortion, tracks like a champ, plays the first three of those Hi-Fi News "torture tracks" without incident, last time I tried. But it's "unconventional" and thus, in some eyes, doomed.But to really get a fix on the subject you need to play with an RS-A1 arm, as I have for the past month. Straight flat arm, no offset, NO ANTI-SKATING, decoupled headshell, decoupled counterweight (free to swing in the breeze), an undamped unipivot ... and the entire arm just sits there on the armboard, unattached to it. When set up properly, it exhibits a centimeter's worth of UNDERhang. No cueing, and an absolute ergonomic nightmare -- don't even THINK about trying to get the stylus into a lead-in groove if you've had a drink or two. But the finest sounding arm I've ever used. This sucker tracks anything, has incredible dynamics, but is so counter-intuitive in how it goes about the job that it has made me rethink everything I thought I knew about tonearms.
The RS-A1 simply blows away -- with the same cartridge -- my third arm, an SME IIIs with conventional fishing-line-and-weight anti-skating. I've found that this arm sounds its best with minimum anti-skating or with the fishing line thingie removed altogether.
So if the arm does not have a calibrated antiskate device can you imagine how haphazzard the sound quality could be?Twisting a wire might or might not get the bias right, and will it keep the bias right over time, over the entire aspect of the LP?
Flying blind means if you do not have an antiskate mechanism allowing easy to set azimuth, vtf, vta, and bias then you are guessing.
Guessing is not the best way to evaluate gear.
You do not need to be a fanatic about bias to want to have something easy to set and calibrated for times you want to flip back and forth at the same settings.
I am happy so many find success with testing by ear, since the ear should be the final arbitor of the bias setting. They probably don't swap out 4 cartridges or more per day.
How are you liking your Mega plinth? Did it exhibit more bass and midrange detail than the Home Despot plinth?
Unless the cartridges are premounted in a removeable headshell or your tonearm uses the P-mount system. Multiple-armed turntables or multiple turntables would be preferable to me than handling those all-too-delicate transducers aka cartridges :-)
The JMW arm has worked perfectly with every medium mass cart (so far, 6 to 8) I've tried with it.The RS-A1 has no anti-skating provision at all and, from everything I've read, heard, and experienced, it doesn't need one.
There is no real way to "calibrate" anti-skating requirements; skating forces vary all across each record and there is no "one size fits all" solution to this. Best you can do is come close. You can certainly do that with the original JMW.
Not sure what you mean by the last paragraph. Both Lencos I've had sound sensational; the current one mostly differs in allowing for the provision of two arms. Too bad that I need it to handle three :-)
Ah huh
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
I was a bit concerned about this "issue" before I bought my Scout, but after a year plus of spinning LPs with two wands and two carts, I have no concerns. The twist in the tone arm cable coming out of the JMW-9 wand is perfectly sufficient anti-skate. I have no skating related problems of any sort. The reason for the quote marks around the word issue is that it really is no issue for me.
I agree with the poster who cited insufficient VTF or damaged LPs as the most likely reasons for excessive sibilance.
Henry
Henry
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