Thanks for the replies fellas.

After a prolonged listening session this evening I can confirm all is well. More than well in fact, it's breaking in and it's just wonderful to hear.

It's one of my favourite experiences of hi-fi ownership. Listening to a piece of equipment, be it tubes or a new cartridge, coming on song.

The sibilance was only apparent in what turned out to be a bad pressing of Dire Straits "Dire Straits". I'm much more used to the remastered digital version where obviously the more severe sibilant parts have been dealt with. I tried it on another TT with a perfectly aligned AT440mlb which deals with sibilance better than most being an ML stylus, it was still there so definitely the pressing.

Everything else I'm playing on it sounds really nice.

It was setup last week by Peter at Cymbiosis including fitting the cartridge and providing the bolts so I'm not gonna mess with that. They do seem a little long but the bottom of the cart is still lower than the bolts. Agreed they do look long though.

The cart is relatively light too so a little extra mass should be fine, the Ittok likes a little weight IME.

As you say Russell, if it sounds good, it should be.

Comparing it to a Benz Micro ACE (low output) I had on a Clearaudio Concept, I would say this is more musical and weighty. Probably not as detailed though and soundstage is not quite as big.... Yet. Here's hoping things improve even more as its only around 10 hours, but if it doesn't I'm happy anyway!

Cheers guys.

Chris