To damp or not to damp JMW-9 Sig ?

Parelius, I just looked at the arm and I see the hole you are talking about, but I cannot see a screw inside. Now this may be due to poor eyesight, but I tried the two hex keys which came with the table and neither fit anything inside the hole. What type of tool is used to turn the screw?

It's a screw down there! No, the hex key is not supplied (VERY strange, indeed), so you have to buy it. Don't remember the size, and I'm not home this week, so I can't check it out. VPI should know.

This damping thing sometimes makes me wonder. I've had three different armwands (2 x 9" Signature and a10.5i) and also put up the 12.7 arm for my friend. None of the arms, as they came from VPI, experienced any damping when the "cup" was half full. Mostly 2/3 or more. I suppose most arms are like that. Very few know about the screw on the top. Strange thing is, everybody seems to experience differences, even though I'd bet most of them had no damping even though the cup was 1/2 full. You have to check - as Artemus_5 did - that there is damping fluid attaching to the part of the bearing on the arm wand.

I have the 10.5i on my Aries 3. The hex key size is 5/32. I agree with the statement above: "The center screw in the top of the arm-wand adjusts the damping level. Clockwise from the top and you have less, counterclockwise and you have more. Don't drop it too low as you need clearance for motion."
When you go too low the arm wand will hit the arm base pillar, don't let that happen. I was using an old Audioquest B100 cartridge previously I determined I did not need any damping. I installed a Audio Technica OC-9 yesterday. I believe this cartridge needs some damping. The sound is wide open and detailed. I think the stylus has some "jitter" while riding in the grooves. More after I try adding some damping.
Bill

I just installed my Signature9 on my Scout late last week. Great deal of improvement over the JMW9. The instructions that came with the arm said to use little or no fluid. I'm a bit of a rebel, and like to experiment, so I filled the well about 2/3 full. Thought it sounded a little better. I didn't know until I read this thread that you can raise or lower the pivot bearing to change dampening. When I lifted the arm off the pivot, I noticed no fluid on the bottom of the ring that is supposed to contact the fluid. So, I filled the well the rest of the way up. Checked for spills due to over filling, (ok) spun some vinyl, and that's when the magic started. I'm using a Dynavector XX2MKII, and now I am crazy in love with this table, arm, and cartridge. This now sounds like the way I thought vinyl was supposed to sound.
If you have the XX2MKII, fill 'er up, and see what happens. It works for me.
Thanks, and enjoy!
Dan