Dear @billstevenson : Yes, controversial due that not all audiophiles have first hand experiences with tonearm/cartridge after market damping ( any kind of damping. ) " devices ".
Well your first set-up as you said and JGH too was a " state of the art " combination and that Shure cartridge is a great tracker so not easy to be aware of damping benefits and certainly can't be a " huge " benefits but as you posted you detected " something " for the better.
Now, the Shure brush is a terrifc damping help that permits the cartridge to track everything including the most severe warps we can imagine ( I owned and even still own a Shure other models. ) and even that something happened down there and this " something " means a lot about coming from that tonearm/combination.
" that it made no discernible difference until too much fluid was added. " Here as in any other damping fluid tonearm the key is: how much and to determine that we must try. We need patience and time but the rewards always are worth to do it.
In your second set-up you posted:
" Hyperion made no audible difference, although using the Ortofon Test Record, it did track a bit better. I have not experimented with fluid levels on this set up, but left the level below half full. "
and the important experience there is that improved the track a bit better and this means lower distortions levels and more music information and again you need to test with fluid damping levels.
""" an "O"scope was used in all my tests. Really this tool is essential for these kinds of tests to be useful and repeatable. ""
In my case it's not a essential tool if we have the rigth evaluation overall proccess and I have it where not only one track but several LP tracks can tell you very easy if fluid damping was for the better with out necessity of " Oscope ".
Telar 1812 or RR Dafos or M&K Flamenco Fever works marvelous about if you know exactly what to look for and if the room/system has an adequated whole resolution. Those LPs are not the only one that can tell you about.
Nice to read your true contributions.
R.
Well your first set-up as you said and JGH too was a " state of the art " combination and that Shure cartridge is a great tracker so not easy to be aware of damping benefits and certainly can't be a " huge " benefits but as you posted you detected " something " for the better.
Now, the Shure brush is a terrifc damping help that permits the cartridge to track everything including the most severe warps we can imagine ( I owned and even still own a Shure other models. ) and even that something happened down there and this " something " means a lot about coming from that tonearm/combination.
" that it made no discernible difference until too much fluid was added. " Here as in any other damping fluid tonearm the key is: how much and to determine that we must try. We need patience and time but the rewards always are worth to do it.
In your second set-up you posted:
" Hyperion made no audible difference, although using the Ortofon Test Record, it did track a bit better. I have not experimented with fluid levels on this set up, but left the level below half full. "
and the important experience there is that improved the track a bit better and this means lower distortions levels and more music information and again you need to test with fluid damping levels.
""" an "O"scope was used in all my tests. Really this tool is essential for these kinds of tests to be useful and repeatable. ""
In my case it's not a essential tool if we have the rigth evaluation overall proccess and I have it where not only one track but several LP tracks can tell you very easy if fluid damping was for the better with out necessity of " Oscope ".
Telar 1812 or RR Dafos or M&K Flamenco Fever works marvelous about if you know exactly what to look for and if the room/system has an adequated whole resolution. Those LPs are not the only one that can tell you about.
Nice to read your true contributions.
R.