Got to be bias/antiskate surely?
This is a dangerous path to take unless you know what you are looking for.
First establish if this is the problem. Look at the position of the stylus and the body in relationship to the record surface.
Does the cartridge body look parallel to the surface- or any other relationship that Rega say the Ania should have. If it isnāt to Rega specification then what do you need to add, or even remove (unlikely but possible).
Normally 1mm change at a time, but if you need more 2x1mm is not a good idea. Use a single 2mm in that case.
As Guinnless suggest, Iād be looking at bias/antiskate first, along with cartridge balance load. Set the max gms that the Ania can run.
Apologies if I am teaching grandmothers.
Oh I wish. I have used every setting between 0 and 2 (max) and no difference. I have read that on the Rega arms the anti skate is already solved to a large agree in the construction and the actual switch does very little. In my tests I tend to agree.
Okā¦no one has said it yet so Iāll mention the elephant in the room
Your albums could already have been damaged by a previous poor setup
If this is the case, no amount of āsettingsā will change that
The only way I know to get round it is to change to a completely different stylus profile that (may) contact an undamaged part of the vinyl and get round the problem
I hope this isnāt the caseā¦but it needs to be mentioned
You can of course buy a new or known to be good replacement album and have a good listen to see if it sounds better
Ps
The hifi news setup album (about Ā£25) is a good way to dial in your base settings on the Regaā¦ though I use an oscilloscope to set mine
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Yeah want to fuss as little as possible with the hardware so this would be a last resort for me.
As for the VTF, it is running 0.02 grams under the Ania max and I have tried every available anti skate setting to no effect. I will say that at a higher VTF the sibilance seems to be less.
This is not the case.
It exhibits it on brand new unplayed records. Also the song I have the recording from at the top also came in a collected works album and there it shows the same sibilance on the same song.
Ok , get your dealer to examine the stylus under his microscope (assuming you have access to a good dealer)
Every mm is about 0.25 degree. I would have thought somewhere around a mm or two would be enough of a difference to hear unless the arm is a long way from correct, without risking taking so far from correct as to be risk causing other problems - but I am not a vinyl expert, just recall this as a means that was used on un-adjustable arms many years ago.
When using a spirit level such as the one Richard suggested, unless it is a recently calibrated precision one always check that the spirit level shows the same in both directions (i.e, flip the level left-right and read again, which can be on any level or near-level surface). If it doesnāt you can still use it to level something quite reliably, but using both ways round and setting it so that the bubble position is the same slightly off-centre each way. Cheap spirit levels often are less than precise - and a precision one that has been mishandled can end up likewise!
Dealer is coming past next week already. Definitely going to demo the issue.
Yeah, thanks for the pointers 
Going to be getting one at the earliest convenience.
The thing with Rega is that their Shtick or USP is that you donāt need to and are discouraged from having to set anything up. You buy a Rega TT and a Rega supplied cart and screw them together and it all works. So one of three things is happening.
-
Rega lied about their USP- I doubt this is the case.
-
Your TT arm is already damaged and misaligned
-
The Cart is damaged.
You can check 2 and 3 by putting a different cart on your arm. If that works with no sibilance, then it must be the new cart that is at fault in some way. Back to Rega.
The problem you may have now is that you have had the cart over a year and Rega may feel that if the cart is damaged it has happened in the interim.
A thought and I may be wrong. Rather than taking anything apart, could you not experiment with VTA/SRA another way. I include both terms because of the argument in the TNT audio article (which also gives a link to the Rega article on VTA).
The Rega felt mat is relatively thick, so accepting there may be other changes to the sound, try playing a record without the mat, buy a piece of craft shop felt and make a thinner mat. That can also be placed on top of the Rega mat and may give you an approximation to raising or lowering the arm mounting.
That said, the fact that you say the sibilance is worse on one channel makes me think of bias which you have checked. Have you checked that the bias is actually working. If you set bias and tracking to zero the arm should stay still horizontally and vertically. If you then increase the bias setting the arm should swing outwards.
Good luck.
If the tone arm is bust it must have come out of the box that way.
As for the cart, lucky for me I have a dated email with my first complaint to the dealer. But I am pretty much at the stage where I will actually throw some money at it to fix it rather than wait for someone to want to check and replace it for me.
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The mat thing is not a bad idea, thanks!
As for bias, I donāt have an anti-skate test record so cannot test it that way yet. But from everything I have read is that Rega has solved most of the anti-skate in the tone arm itself and the actual switch makes little difference.
And I have just had word from the dealer.
When the representative comes next week he will bring their RP6 with as well as a different phono stage.
This will most certainly show if it is a problem or an inherent trait.
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If your nervous at all then take your deck to a specialist before I started tinkering myself Iād always take my deck to Audio T.
A service and professional set wonāt cost the earth and will put your mind at rest.
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Agreed. With the dealer coming to check it out I am in those waters now. Either his deck will do the same and then I know or it wont and then he needs to make mine do the same as his.
After adding a Rega wall shelf nearly 2 years ago I had sibilance particularly noticeable on one LP. I canāt remember the resolution, but I didnāt like the wall shelf sound. Itās fine further away from the speakers and other sensitive things. I have since discovered the tracking weight on my RP10 maybe a tad heavy.
Iād tend not to blame the Rega and try other things. I donāt like the TT PSU close to anything, not least because when I turn the mains off it used to generate a big thump through the speakers. The Aria needs to be kept away from other boxes also to sound its best. Just my neuroses.
Phil
Kryptos,
Something sounds grossly incorrect to me. Because it is grossly incorrect, I very much doubt playing around with VTA will make any difference, nor tracking weight (as long as youāre not tracking at - for example - 3g), nor bias. Those need to correct, but wonāt fix this. I would guess that either the stylus is damaged, incorrectly fitted on the cantilever or the cartridge is incorrectly aligned in the arm. Perhaps all three. So let Rega take a look, if they deem it to be acceptable, buy a competent cartridge and align it so it is ānuts onā in the arm. The cardboard protractor that Rega supply is broadly useless in my opinion. Perhaps get a MintlLP protractor, a Dynavector 20X2 L, a charity jar for all the swearing youāll do and borrow the Rega torque wrench to get it done correctly. You can adjust VTA by tweaking the tracking force up and down a little. Also make sure the turntable is even and keep the stylus clean. Enjoy!
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