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Your (vinyl) sibilance test?

How thick is the album, Kasper? If it is one of the "thinner" 120g I guess you could try adjusting VTA specifically for that album. (Assuming the LP is also fairly flat.)
I must admit that for me if sibilants and high frequencies become unnaturally prominent, I immediately suspect the room balance i.e. for me, in the general sense, it's more a loudspeaker vs room issue than a turntable one.
A few quick adjustments and everything is fine.

If all other params are ok for all other LPs (VTF, cart loading etc) and if VTA doesn't work I'd think we'd have to admit defeat and assume that's just the way that pressing sounds. I've got several PG albums but not that particular one unfortunately so I can't confirm.
Maybe one of the other contributors can give you some feedback on this?
 
I've four copies of So on vinyl - all different pressings - all equally horrid when it comes to sibilance. I think it's just one of those pressings - no matter what cart/tt combo I try it on it never sounds great. Maybe the mix engineer was a bit mutton in the HF range?
 
Dire Straits - Six blade knife.

The effect varies with arm /cart phono stage comb's.

I have reduced it but I'm yet to eliminate it completely - interestingly its also evident on CD.

PU7, Rondo Bronze and Phonoclone 3 is a very good combo at minimising the effect thankfully.
 
However much you spend and/or tweak, there are some records that it's impossible to entirely banish sibilance from. My theory is that this may relate to the styli of previous owners doing nasties to the surface of the vinyl. Or perhaps in some cases to mastering from digital?
 
Or perhaps they just forgot to put the wind guard on the mic originally used to record it?

Curious how the vocalist felt the need to have the mic virtually "in mouth"

The Problem is that Peter Gabriel actually can't sing and neither can Knopfler, and actually both of them realise it and allow the engineers to do the best they can.
 
I like Peter Gabriel but I remember an interview with Mike Rutherford years ago where he said that when Gabriel left Genesis the producer/sound engineers had a much easier time with Phil Collins' voice because it was a purer sound and needed much less work in production...
 
Jonathan Ribee said:
Mmm. Ella and Louis.

Sounds good now. Just the noise on the recording.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's really bad. You should try recording it to tape at anything like reasonable level. Nasty.

Best cure for vinyl sibilance IME is a MircoRidge tip, or perhaps the very finest VDH. You need a very fine manor radius on the tip - <3.5um.
They don't reduce the level but they can massively clean up the sibilance from 'shhhhhsplat' to 'ssssss'.
 
If you totally banish Peter Gabriel's sibilance the rest of you collection will sound rubbish! I've a live album which is one of my tests.
 
Steve Hillage "Motivation Radio" can be a sibilance torture test, my present cartridge deals with it pretty well.
 
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