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Tonearm microphonics

When I have the volume at my normal level & tap the arm (not whilst playing vinyl) it is slightly amplified... Is it possible to significantly reduce/eliminate this?

Current set up - Roksan Xerxes 20plus, Origin Live Encounter tonearm (thin cork ring at the base) with Lyra Skala.

Apologies if this is a stupid question!
infection
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,158 posts
 

When the Townshend Audio Rock table was introduced in the 80's (I believe it was), which connects the headshell of the tonearm mounted on it to a trough containing silicone damping fluid, some of the British reviewers liked it's "master tape" sound, while others (particularly those in the Linn Sondek camp) found it's sound to be "overdamped", too "controlled".

Can an arm be "too" damped, too non-resonant? Are those two things the same? I don't want my arm to add any resonance to the sound the mechanical-to-electrical transducer (cartridge) produces, any more than I want the enclosure of a loudspeaker to add any resonance to the electrical-to-mechanical transductance the speaker performs. Is that a fair and accurate equivalency?

cleeds
6,125 posts
 
rauliruegas
Do you mean that you tested before bougth it in your today cartridge room/system?
Yes. I almost always evaluate components first-hand before making a purchase.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
yes -- remove tonearm.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,111 posts
 
@bdp24 
Can an arm be "too" damped, too non-resonant? Are those two things the same?
Not really.

Removing resonance from the arm tube is a good thing and its impossible to overdamp the arm tube in this regard. One **massive** problem with that though: messing with the mechanical resonance caused by the compliance of the cantilever and the cartridge/arm mass is not good, unless by doing so you get it inside the 7-12Hz window. So if you are applying damping materials to the arm, you can mess that up and with dreadful results.

Damping can be done by a damping trough too; which is an entirely different form of damping, but IME that can lead to problems especially if the LP is not perfectly flat. Generally speaking the arm will not need this kind of damping if the mechanical resonance is in the right window.

So you have to be careful when bandying these terms about. They can mean three or four different things depending on who you're talking to and that's on a good day!
larryi
4,256 posts
 

bdp24,

Yes, I do think it is possible to overdo damping.  Specifically with tonearms, I have experimented with the damping fluid level in my Basis Vector arm and heard the difference with the fluid level in the damping trough of an SME arm.  Too much damping results in a lifeless sound. 

I think tuning of resonance and damping of vibrations in all parts of the reproduction chain is NOT a matter of trying to minimize vibration to the utmost.  I was in attendance when a representative from Symposium tried different shelves under a CD player.  The very top model that Symposium offered, that does the most to dissipate vibrations as heat, actually sounded quite bad--dry and thin.  The representative agreed with this assessment; there can be too much damping.

I've heard the same with devices for placing under speakers, exotic racks, etc.  I spoke with someone in the high end industry that has heard hundreds of different systems.  He said that he has NEVER liked the sound of a system employing exotic and extremely expensive vibration damping rack/shelves.

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