celander, Regarding your proposed use of the damping tape with the London cartridge, if you think about the physics of the situation, is it not possible that by wrapping the tonearm wand, you are inhibiting its capacity to dissipate energy transmitted into it from the cartridge, by inhibiting its capacity to vibrate? This would result in the energy moving either to the pivot or back to the headshell, both of which are to be avoided. I guess, best case, the energy is dissipated as heat in the arm tube. Anyway, let us know how it works out. We toss these terms around, but in fact most of the time the physics is complex and requires a deep understanding to predict.
Foil damping tape as a tonearm tube wrap?
There has been a couple sporadic posts recently about using a product called 3M foil damping tape to wrap tonearm tubes. The tape is normally used in applications to reduce unwanted vibrations in the product to which the tape is attached. In the particular tonearm wrap applications, users claim a noticeable improvement in sonic qualities of vinyl playback. I created this thread to catalog impressions of others who have used this material, their particular tonearm wrap applications and their take away stories. Who has used this product for tonearm wraps? Thoughts?
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Unless the turntable is properly isolated the cartridge, tonearm, platter etc. is subject to very low frequency seismic vibration. The tonearm, like the cartridge and platter, is susceptible to seismic vibration in the 10-12 Hz region, which is its design resonant frequency Fr. That is the physics involved. Even if heroic vibration isolation is employed, isolation is not perfect so it might be worthwhile to damp the tonearm, e.g., tape or oil bath, using oil of the correct viscosity, even if isolated. It’s not rocket science. Well, maybe it is. |
An alternative to using tape that I use is the Herbies Damping ring. I use it on my FR-64S with nice results. Lightweight and easily installs. I would say it takes the arm up a notch closer to the level of a FR-66S in terms of a more neutral and relaxed presentation. I guess I could add more if I wanted to experiment but one is fine. http://herbiesaudiolab.net/jr.htm#jr |
The rational for constrained layer damping is that the product absorbs vibration and converts it to heat---not reflecting the mechanical energy back to it’s source, but instead dissipating it. That’s the theory, anyway. I really doubt damping tape can prevent an arm tube from vibrating! It CAN absorb vibration though, and is in fact designed and intended to do just that. EAR damping products are widely used in commercial applications, to reduce the level of noise produced by large machines in manufacturing plants. In music systems, constrained layer damping (used in some of the world’s best loudspeakers, and in some isolation platforms, such as those made by Symposium Acoustics) can be used not only on tone arms, but also the metal chassis’ of electronics, many of which ring like a bell. That doesn’t necessarily mean the sound of those electronics will be improved, but it’s cheap to give it a try and find out. |
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