Can an old Thorens Table be "Over Dampend" to the point where sound is adversely effected?


I am sure this topic is not new but I would like a new take on it...So the question is: Can one Over Dampen an older suspension chassis Thorens like a 125,145,160,166 etc.? I am only (in this post) regarding the exposed inner wood of the plinth like the base and inner walls. I have heard in some venues that it is easy to over dampen and KILL the dynamics of one of these older tables...Are they referring to more of the damping of the motor, platter, suspension parts etc. basically the metal parts or any damping? What are your thoughts?

Thanks!
rikintpa
geoch
The funny thing is that even a solid lead plinth can steal the life out.

you can say that again. Lead anywhere. One of the worst materials ever foisted on naive audiophiles.

Dear @lewm : Massive TT/platters are not innert just because weigths 300kgs or more. Are inert for you or me but not for the extremely senstive microphone that's a cartridge with that so low output that as you know could be only 0.01 mv!!!!!

A massive structure is inert in rest but things are that TT are for spining and in that spining job exist a dynamic mass that resonate and cause micro vibrations that a human been can't detect but certainly your Ortofon MC 2000 can and does that.

Things are not so easy as many of us can think or a TT massive designers presents to us. Look " outside "  those behemonts TTs with really heavy weigths in the hundred of kgs. where the ignorant level of we customers are buying and paying higher prices than ever over 150K+ for each and every one could think that are inert by definition but it's not.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.
I have tweaked my lenco 75 a lot and the first   thing I learned was that too much damping kill musicality. I have a 160 lb lenco and the main purpose is to conduct the vibes out . No damping at all.

"Over-damped" implies there is an optimal amount of damping. At one time, the Linn Sondek and Oracle Delphi were considered the two best tables available. Their designs could not have been more different; the Oracle employed damping (particularly of the LP by it's mat), the Linn not. They sounded very different, people preferring one to the other. Was the Oracle over-damped, or the Linn under-damped?

A table's design is a combination of many different elements, offered as a complete package by it's designer. Perhaps it's better to leave a given design as is, and if one wants a more or less damped table, get one designed as such.

But as a mechanical transducer, why would one want the table itself to add vibrations or resonances of it's own to the tiny vibrations contained in the LP groove? There was a table designed from the ground up, done as a research project at an engineering college in England. A fundamental element of it's design is a trough of damping fluid, in which a little hollow tube attached to the tonearm's headshell is immersed. This damping system greatly reduces the resonant frequency inherent in all tonearm/cartridge pairings, as well as absorbing and dissipating any stray vibrations and resonances in the cartridge body and tonearm. It also, very importantly, "locks" the front end of the arm to the table, just as the bearings do at the rear of the arm. Robert Greene called the original Townshend Rock Turntable a legend in TAS, and the latest version of the table (Mk.7) just went out of production, a new version promised soon. One of the best kept secrets in Hi-Fi! Is it over-damped? Or are all other tables under-damped?