Turntable sibilance

Thanks for all your responses. Bill_k, yes I see you're correct about the VTA on the Nottingham. I'll give that a go.

As a separate issue, I purchased an Expressimo Audio Half Moon Heavyweight counterweight. While it made no difference to the pre existing sibilance issue, in every other respect it was a massive improvement. Quite startling actually. Other than upgrading speakers, I've never heard anything make the degree of improvement that this deceptively simple thing has. For once the claims on the website are fully borne out. More focussed midrange, increased soundstage depth, sweeter highs etc.

For the person who asked me to list my system, ok, other than the aforementioned, I have a Lehmann Black Cube phono pre with external psu, Rotel 971 cd player, Korg MR 1000 DSD recorder/player, Brook (Australian) passive preamp, Musical Fidelity X-10 v3 tube buffer, Crown Studio Reference 1 power amp, & Earthworks Sigma 6.2 speakers.

What specific LPs are you testing? Sibilance is often in the recording itself...Hotel CA track great example

IMHO you have a fairly low compliance cartridge and a medium mass arm.
You will need to add mass at the head shell to eliminate the sibilance.

As a quick, and dirty, experiment blue tak or tape a nickel on the headshell,
being sure to rebalance the arm. If it works you can invest in one of the
nice commercial headshell weights. A nickel weighs five grams.

I am assuming that you have already tried adjusting tracking force and anti-
skate and that the cartridge has under 800 hours on it.

"Crown Studio Reference 1"

I don't know for sure, but your amp may have something to do with your problem. Using pro gear is a mixed bag. You're passive line stage is a really smart move in that it allows you to get around using an inexpensive active preamp, and all the problems they bring. In your case, the benefits of going with a passive are lost. The reason is that your amp has gain controls, and any other number of active features in the signal path. Essentially, its a preamp. If you know someone who will lend you an amp to try in your system, take it and see what happens. You can also experiment with the controls on the amp. For instance, if you have both gain controls set to max, lower them and see if that helps.

Another thing I forgot to mention in my first post is break in. Phono cartridges break in a lot. Far more than any other component. If you don't have at least 100 hours on it, wait until you do before making any decisions.

Re the Reference 1, that's definitely not the problem. I've only had it for two weeks, the problem was the same with the Dynavector SSP/101 I was using before that.

Cartridge break in isn't it, the cartridge was actually bought used from someone on Audiogon. I had the stylus checked recently at a good hi fi store & they concluded it looked pretty good. I suspect VTA. As one of the other posters mentioned, because I have a Nottingham turntable the VTA is adjustable, so I'll try that.