Vinyl and slurring S'es

Try this; turn the volume all the way up to listen to the background noise of the cd and the analog. If you get a lot of hiss in the analog, it may be an indication that there is something going on with your phono stage or interface between cartridge and phono. It won't give you absolute results, but it may lead to electronics and wiring as oppossed to tracking.
If you do get a considerable amount of hiss, substantailly more than the cd rig, try some different ic's and different connections to see if it changes. Try to eliminate as much as you can in order to isolate the anomoly, no matter how simple it sounds. I would evan unplug my ic's from the back of my cd and plug them into the phono and visa versa, just to see if it is the sound of the ic's I'm hearing or something in the pre-amp that is different. It's hard to tell from here if there is something wrong, there is just a synergistic mismatch of components, or if it's a matter of taste. From there, you might have a better shot at finding out which it is.

I have noticed this with 180g vinyl discs. The slurred and hissing/rough S's are really annoying (e.g., Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited"). In fact, I hadn't played any for some time. Now, I am wondering if these discs require some modified VTA, stylus force, etc.

Anyone else have this problem and a solution? Thanks!

agree that a VTA adjustment would be in order if you are previously optimized for standard thickness LP's. Be sure to note the ajdustment wheel location / measure / or mark your present VTA position on an index card before you change it, so that you can get it back there easily.

You won't believe this! But it's true. The problem is most likely the interconnects between the TT and the phono preamp!

Really.

I sell interconnects under my brand name BEAR Labs, so I do have an interest in this issue. Many times, I've demo'd the complete transformation of the "sibilance" from Lp to clear highs by merely switching in one of my interconnects and making no other changes.

The sibilance problem with Lp bothered me for many, many years, and I never found an adequate explanation. Then virtually by accident in the course of routinely changing out my interconnects when I first developed Silver Lightning I was really shocked to hear a lack of sibilance, and the appearance of nice smooth clear highs! I reproduced the improved sound at every audiophile's house I could find and was completely convinced, but surprised.

I still don't know exactly what the cause is, but there it is.

Regards,

_-_-bear

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I don't necessarily agree with Bear. There is no "most likely" scenario. Try everything else (VTA, stylus force, cartridge alignment, playing records on someone else's system, etc.) before handing over hard-earned cash.

And if it MIGHT be the cables/interconnects, then ask your friendly audio store (one that you do business with) if you can try some out. In fact, they might even give it a test run for you. With my table, it is a simple matter to change out cables because it is a DIN plug into the tonearm base. Pull out one, stick in the new.

Spending money is the last resort!