An Object Lesson -- Going Crazy Over LP Sibilance When It's the Record Itself

In preparation for the Sgt. Pepper release next week, I figured that I'd get out my vinyl stereo copy and give it a spin. So, I pulled out my Japanese stereo pressing and played through side 1. There was a certain amount of sibilance on Billy Shear's "ssssss's" on "With A Little Help From My Friends". The worst was on John's very enunciated vocals on "Being For the Benefit Of Mr. Kite". The sibilance almost buzzed, it was so bad. So I got out my Feickert protractor and my cheap Chinese stylus force gauge and realigned the cartridge. I even adjusted the height (which is a pain in the neck on the McIntosh MT-5) to try to eliminate that horrible sibilance. No use.... I couldn't get rid of it....

So, I put on the CD version and although John's "S's" were quite well enunciated on "Being For the Benefit..", there was no sibilance.

I then got the brilliant idea that it may have NOT been a fault of my cartridge setup, but rather a bad vinyl mastering (Japanese Odeon Apple labelled pressings of that era tended to be a bit bright) that was the cause of my sibilance and that I was chasing a ghost. So..... I put on the Rainbo pressed 2012 LP pressing of "Sgt. Peppers" and lo-and-behold, no sibilance whatsoever.

The object lesson to myself was don't be too fanatic on blaming everything on your lousy cartridge setup skills, it might be the source material!

 

I went through this a few weeks ago with a record, tested it on another table and same thing hard sssss sounds on the same track. Bad news is I can't fix it but the good news is I didn't have to drive myself even more crazy

 

The old Shure test record covered this aspect, as i also experience sibilance
On the occasional Lp
The test track starts normal , no sibilance, and again st a higher level
And again each time getting higher in cut till sibilance is heard,
Most 50,s and 60?s and many 70,s
Pressings were perfect in this respect.,
It seems that there are Engineers and
Engineers,

 

Thuffererin' Thuccotath.

Paul McCartney sings, "I'm gonna thit right down and right mythelf a letter" on both my tables. A thlight annoyance, to be thure, but he doethn't do it much, if at all, on the retht of the album (Kisses on the Bottom). I thpose I could call in the thibilance polithe, but the vinyl otherwithe kickth the theedee's butt in terms of body, flow and thoul, tho no biggie.

 

Just stick to the CD. A bad pressing/mastering can't be aided. Maybe it's that I stick to conicals but I never experienced such problem with my records. Then again I don't obsess over it; sometimes it's just the way they were recorded.

 

Was driving me crazy this week listening the Beatles Mono LP of Hard Day's Night. "And I Love Her" had crazy sibilance on most every 's' in the song.

 

I appreciate your post as, I sometimes lack confidence in my own TT set up skills if I start noticing audible issues during listening. I too have some vinyl where sibilance drives me nuts but, much of it where there is no issue. Ever since learning what sibilance is, if I let it, it drives my crazy! Sometimes ignorance is bliss.....

 

Pink Floyd , Meddle. For me, the king of albums cut with sibilance that you could well drive yourself crazy trying to get right. It seems to me to almost certainly be cut too hot, and some setups will reveal that.

 

Sometimes raising the rear of the tonearm( vta setting) can make a big difference. We are trying to replicate the same angle as cutting head.
This is impossible , due to lacquer spring back but the way i see it, if you are set properly for the correct angle and the LP makers decide to
CHANGE this angle then problems along the sibilance experienced may ensue.
Ringmat is one solution if this action helps. The problem being that each LP
Requiring arm adjustment is impractical.
Ringmat is a kit where you fit their mat
Onto platter and reset vta,
This must be done with a thick LP.
Now, when you play a thinner LP
Rear of tonearm will be too high.
An additional mat is added ( different colour denoting a certain thickness)
When the right one is added you make a note so that next time you can add it automatically,
I have not tried this accessory,

 

Too many records are cut too loud. Do not chase for pristine sound from these in principle faulty records. Records cut according to the norm play excuisit on every stylus, be it conical, elliptical or some exotic ones. (provided not worn of course). Stylus lifetime shorter than you think for distortion free playback.
50 micron trackability is good for every record from the store.

 

To the best of my memory i have never had a bad Warner brothers LP
Or an Atlantic Lp,
Pressing quality and recording quality
Always spot on. Americans always press good records, and master.
As for the rest of the world , variable!

 

9 times out of 10, it's a suboptimal set-up or suboptimal eqpt, not the record, which is the cause of sibilance/mistracking.

The fact that the modestly compressed 2012 pressing doesn't exhibit sibilance/mistracking says nothing about whether the sibilance/mistracking issue is with the Japan pressing or the inability of your set-up/eqpt to track that LP.

 

I don't know how you can make that statement, I guess if you have a sub-optimal set up it might be true.

My experience is that many times it's the recording itself and not the record, or obviously the setup. Try listening to some old Simon and Garfunkel LPs, sibilant as hell. Then listen to the same tracks on the CD and they sound just as sibilant. Done the test too many times to even care anymore. Sibilant recordings are a fact of life.

 

I have many CD's with the same tracks/complete LP's on it. Indeed sibilance and sometimes other kinds of distortion are in the recording itself.
Compare Elmore James "Something inside me" on LP and CD, all as bad, CD not even better.
A good record is a matter of proper technique, I think mastering is done by the night porter or the cleaning woman to save cost, especially in the pop field.
When Elvis died RCA Holland released a 10 45rpm singles set. My friend worked at Inelco RCA deputy) and because of the rush they just copied from the LP's with bad results. Luckyly I still had most songs on original fifties RCA 45 and EP's, magnificent sounding.

 

True enough, but I still stand by my basic statements. 9 times out of 10, it's not an issue with the LP (or the recording) and the LPs are simply exposing problems, not causing them.

Sibilant recordings certainly exist but sibilance and mistracking generally have a slightly different sound. And there are very few cuts of LPs which are universally problematic. I wish I had a dime for every time I've here about somebody returning a copy of some album two or three times because of sibilance or distortion, yet virtually no one else has the same issue.

The CD and the 2012 LP simply confirm that sibilance isn't inherent in the recording, but they tell us nothing about whether what you're hearing with the Japan LP is a pressing/mastering issue or a mistracking issue.

 

Wasn't that about the time studio's started using digital technology ?

 

I don,t know. The record dated from the late 60,zSme and was made to showbhowvgoos the V25 Mk3 was,
The track starts with bells, and orchestra.this repeated 6 times
As I say 1st track is fine, by the time we get to band 6 we can actually hear the effect of high level cutting .
As Hubert jan says, cut too high these days for normal pickups

 

"Digital" doesn't cause sibilants on recordings. Poor recording, mastering and pressing techniques do.

 

I use the Audio Technica 150 mlx cart. If I get sibilance, I know it's the record.

 

Yes, using a needle that is good enough to never cause sibilance is a good way. I would say a 0,2x0,7mil is good enough.

 

Digital may not cause it but will accentuate the problem.

 

Impossible. The cart is only one part of the equation.

 

The needle is a big part.

 

The world's finest tracking cart with mis-matched components or a suboptimal set-up will mistrack.

 

Yeah, but that was recorded to be played on one of these:



And listened to by one of these:



Probably drowned out by all of the other noise.
-Bill