04-08-08: Jsmoller
Can anyone quantify the improvement with the KAB fluid damper? Will my 54 year old ears be able to hear the difference on my SL-1210M5G with a DL-160. Right now the combo sounds great to me w/o the KAB mod. I have a thick Technics rubber mat, record weight and the standard M5G headshell.
I am a 54-year-old with an SL-1210M5G outfitted with Denon DL-160 cartridge, Sumiko headshell, and KAB fluid damper. I definitely hear a difference and definitely consider it money well spent.
I added the fluid damper a couple months after I'd installed the DL-160. When I ordered the fluid damper from KAB, I also got a tube of bearing oil. While installing the fluid damper I also added several drops of oil to the turntable motor bearing. I think this lowered the noise floor and also made the platter spin more smoothly, requiring less speed correction from the DD quartz lock circuitry (my guess).
Anyway, it's important to not overfill the damping trough with the silicone fluid. When I first installed it, I filled the trough about 2/3 full. KAB recommends 1/2. The result at 2/3 full was that the sound was smooth but not very involving. Noise floor was way down, but initial transients were rounded off and blunted while there was improved resolution of room ambience and better note decay at the other end. I lowered the fluid level to 1/3 and that's where I really liked the results. Transients are quick and sharp as ever. I hear the room better, and there is much more natural decay of both instrument resonance and room ambience.
There are two other audible benefits at least:
Stylus movement is better controlled, tracking is better, there is much less overshoot and "groove clatter." This is most noticeable on percussion. Bells, cymbals, brushes, tambourine--all those percussion instruments that make complex overtones in the treble punctuated by strong transients--their sounds are now much better sorted out, more musical. The trough imparts a sense of refinement to the tracking. I think Kevin's right. With the right amount of fluid in the trough, the SL12x0 tonearm sounds refined and in control. You'd never guess it to be the built-in tonearm on a mass-produced turntable. You hear more music, less noise, less overshoot, less clatter.
The second benefit is how the fluid damper enables the arm to track *anything.* By that I mean I have some bargain-bin LPs that are hideously warped--the outer track undulates by 1/2" or more. These records launch most arm setups right into the air, only to land who-knows-where, sustaining who-knows-what damage. Not so with the fluid damper. The stylus simply traces the groove, period. The bigger ramification here is that if a 1/2" warp can't throw the stylus out of the groove, the warp and arm/cart compliance resonances are also well-damped by several dB. This imparts more clarity and extension to bass and more inner detail and clarity overall, without sounding etched or harsh, as the damping also minimizes groove clatter and overshoot.
I still recommend putting the DL-160 on a Sumiko headshell for its additional rigidity, better wire leads and clips, superior coupler to the tonearm, and azimuth adjustment capability.
Also, how much benefit you hear from the fluid damper may depend some on what all else you've done to control vibration. I have replaced the stock feet with threaded brass cones sitting on a butcher block cutting board which itself is supported by Vibrapods. I also use an Oracle sorbothane Groove Isolator mat and KAB's rubber record grip clamp. I also noticed a drop in noise floor by putting the stock Technics felt slipmat under the Groove Isolator. Seems that a heavy mat over the felt mat damps the platter ring more effectively.
The less of this that you've done, the harder the fluid damper has to work. You may hear a more dramatic improvement that way, but the cumulative results of a multilateral approach to vibration control is better.
