Dougdeacon, I think the thing I am reacting to in your posts is the word 'chaotic'. What meaning/context are you using that word? As in Chaos Theory? BTW that is the meaning that I used.
I maintain that wood is relatively unquantified with regards to other materials. You can have two sample taken from the same board side by side and have different properties. I have yet to see any that I would consider 'non-resonant'. 'Non-resonant' would be materials like E.A.R.'s 2003 compound or some of the damping materials made by 3M. Wood will still need damping materials to really control it.
Am I just being too literal??
Something else that has bothered me in this discussion: people have been talking about vibration moving from the cartridge to the arm.
FWIW, the cartridge should have no such vibration, being held in locus by the arm. The difference between the motion of the cantilever and the cartridge body will effectively be describing the resulting output signal. Now it **is** possible for the arm tube to move, sympathetically due to vibration elsewhere in the room, most likely from the loudspeakers. This can color the presentation as this vibration can be added to the locus of the cartridge body.
This is why an arm tube should be damped. A very simple proof of this is to use an undamped tone arm to make a tape recording without the speakers playing. You will find that it sounds quite a bit different (better) when compared to the same track but influenced by speakers playing at the same time.
I maintain that wood is relatively unquantified with regards to other materials. You can have two sample taken from the same board side by side and have different properties. I have yet to see any that I would consider 'non-resonant'. 'Non-resonant' would be materials like E.A.R.'s 2003 compound or some of the damping materials made by 3M. Wood will still need damping materials to really control it.
Am I just being too literal??
Something else that has bothered me in this discussion: people have been talking about vibration moving from the cartridge to the arm.
FWIW, the cartridge should have no such vibration, being held in locus by the arm. The difference between the motion of the cantilever and the cartridge body will effectively be describing the resulting output signal. Now it **is** possible for the arm tube to move, sympathetically due to vibration elsewhere in the room, most likely from the loudspeakers. This can color the presentation as this vibration can be added to the locus of the cartridge body.
This is why an arm tube should be damped. A very simple proof of this is to use an undamped tone arm to make a tape recording without the speakers playing. You will find that it sounds quite a bit different (better) when compared to the same track but influenced by speakers playing at the same time.