To damp or not to damp JMW-9 Sig ?

Ok - you piqued my interest, and I had nothing to do, so I played around with the damping in my arm. It is the 10.5i that I just installed on my Superscoutmaster which had previously been a 9 Sig. I have a Benz Micro Ebony LP, and discovered that a bit of the damping fluid is a good thing. Pull the plug on the arm and remove it to a very safe place. Clean out the will with a Q-tip as suggested in the instructions. Fill the well about 1/2 way. Too much oil will deaden the highs. Its easy to put in the oil - just add drop by drop - it fills fast. To remove oil, mop up with an additional Q-tip. The results are improved midrange - more depth and air between the notes, and improved low bass. Post your results.

OK, I tried dampening the arm last night and didn't like what I heard. The sparkle left the music. I read that Harry said if the cartridge was damped then not to damp the arm. The Dyna 20XL is damped.
Would've got back on this sooner but have been out of town. Thanks for the response Stringreen

12-22-07: Stringreen
I...discovered that a bit of the damping fluid is a good thing. ... Too much oil will deaden the highs....The results are improved midrange - more depth and air between the notes, and improved low bass. ....

A couple months ago I added the KAB fluid damper to my Technics SL1210 M5G, and that is EXACTLY what I got. When I first filled the trough about 2/3 full, the presentation was quieter, but it was also deader, with initial transients and high treble info missing. I lowered the fluid level in the trough to about 1/3 and voila! Magic!

I got the same improvements you mentioned--improved midrange, more depth and air between notes (especially noticable in better stage depth and decay of notes), and improved bass.

It also tracks like a mo-fo. Hideously warped records don't phaze it at all.

So my conclusion is that a *little* damping is an improvement over no damping, but too much damping (and you'll know it when you hear it) sucks the life out of the music.

FTR, I thought about trying less fluid. I thought it may have been over filled. But there was no fluid on the underside of the JMW-9 arm when I took it off of the pivot. That made me believe that there was not too much fluid. The trough was about 1/2 full. I may try it again. I've got lots of experimenting going on right now. So far I've tried 4" maple platform with the Super Feet and a sandbox without the Super Feet. I'll post some results when I have something more definitive