I had a Rabco in which I replaced the arm with carbon fiber and set up the cat whiskers to drive an opamp, complete with a bit of capacitive smoothing so the opamp could match the speed of the grooves. It worked well except that the track on which the arm moved was resonant and sloppy. Reducing the mass of the arm was a big deal though. I think that Audio magazine article really does itself an injustice by referring to ’pivoted’ as opposed to ’radial’ arms- in that regard it makes almost no sense unless you know that they mean ’linear tracking’ when the word ’pivoted’ appears....
TONEARM DAMPING : DAMPED OR NOT ? ? USELESS ? ? WELCOMED ? ?
Dear friends: This tonearm critical subject sometimes can be controversial for say the least. Some audiophiles swear for non damped tonearms as the FR designs or SAEC or even the SME 3012 that is not very well damped in stock original status.
Some other audiophiles likes good damped tonearms.
In other thread a gentleman posted:
" If a cartridge is properly matched to the tonearm damping is not required. " and even explained all what we know about the ideal resonance frequency range between tonearm and cartridge ( 8hz to 12hz. ). He refered to this when said: " properly matched to the tonearm ".
In that same thread that a Triplanar tonearm owner posted:
" This is the one thing about the Triplanar that I don't like. I never use the damping trough...... I imagine someone might have a use for it; I removed the troughs on my Triplanars; its nice to imagine that it sounds better for doing so. "
At the other side here it's a very well damped tonearm:
https://audiotraveler.wordpress.com/tag/townshend/
Now, after the LP is in the spining TT platter ( everything the same, including well matched cartridge/tonearm. ) the must critical issue is what happens once the cartridge stylus tip hits/track the LP grooves modulations.
The ideal is that those groove modulations can pass to the cartridge motor with out any additional kind of developed resonances/vibrations and that the transducer makes its job mantaining the delicated and sensible signal integrity that comes in those recorded groove modulations.
That is the ideal and could be utopic because all over the process/trip of the cartridge signal between the stylus tip ride and the output at the tonearm cable the signal suffers degradation ( resonances/vibrations/feedback ) mainly developed through all that " long trip " .
So, DAMPING IS NEED IT AT THE TONEARM/HEADSHELL SIDE OR NOT?
I'm trying to find out the " true " about and not looking if what we like it or not like it is rigth or not but what should be about and why of that " should be ".
I invite all of you analog lovers audiophiles to share your points of view in this critical analog audio subject. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT?
Thank's in advance.
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
Some other audiophiles likes good damped tonearms.
In other thread a gentleman posted:
" If a cartridge is properly matched to the tonearm damping is not required. " and even explained all what we know about the ideal resonance frequency range between tonearm and cartridge ( 8hz to 12hz. ). He refered to this when said: " properly matched to the tonearm ".
In that same thread that a Triplanar tonearm owner posted:
" This is the one thing about the Triplanar that I don't like. I never use the damping trough...... I imagine someone might have a use for it; I removed the troughs on my Triplanars; its nice to imagine that it sounds better for doing so. "
At the other side here it's a very well damped tonearm:
https://audiotraveler.wordpress.com/tag/townshend/
Now, after the LP is in the spining TT platter ( everything the same, including well matched cartridge/tonearm. ) the must critical issue is what happens once the cartridge stylus tip hits/track the LP grooves modulations.
The ideal is that those groove modulations can pass to the cartridge motor with out any additional kind of developed resonances/vibrations and that the transducer makes its job mantaining the delicated and sensible signal integrity that comes in those recorded groove modulations.
That is the ideal and could be utopic because all over the process/trip of the cartridge signal between the stylus tip ride and the output at the tonearm cable the signal suffers degradation ( resonances/vibrations/feedback ) mainly developed through all that " long trip " .
So, DAMPING IS NEED IT AT THE TONEARM/HEADSHELL SIDE OR NOT?
I'm trying to find out the " true " about and not looking if what we like it or not like it is rigth or not but what should be about and why of that " should be ".
I invite all of you analog lovers audiophiles to share your points of view in this critical analog audio subject. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT?
Thank's in advance.
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
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- 318 posts total
@bukanona tyray, in my opinion antistatic effect is very small and it’s more advertising gimmick. I am a little bit confused why none of MC cartridges uses brush. Maybe there is some interference. For high compliant ones it should be very OK...Now that you mention it, I do remember before the market had ’standard’ stylus cleaning brushes, cleaning fluids and dust covers, folks just used to wipe the vinyl with a cotton cloth and blew on the ’needle’ or just used nothing at all, which I do remember caused a lot of static and not to mention dust accumulation on the needle. I’m thinking we both are right though, the antistatic brush also could be thought of an antidust brush too. It must have been a ’revolution’ at the time it came out as it took some years before for the practice and use of ’record cleaning’ became an audiophile practiced standard. I think the Shure brush patent was such a Shure engineering statement it became synonymous with the Shure brand. Stanton MM carts also uses brushes. Maybe it was just a MM Thing? |
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we can assume its compliance is stiffer than original, and I also pointed out that I used a very light weight headshell on the FR64S.. " WE?, wrong because is you whom assume it and in the other side even with a low weigth headshell the resonance frequency is really low. "" I don't know this to be true, but it is a possible explanation, because the mass can dissipate energy as heat. I took your (dismissive) response as evidence you disagree with the idea of mass damping .. "" That is always the " problem " with you: always are assuming " things " for other people. Obviously those were not my words but only what is your hyphotesis with no true value at all. Ignorant?, you can read my posts in this thread and I did not use that word in reference to some of the audiophiles that posted here. Enough, period. R. |
- 318 posts total