Creative and cheap DIY turntable/tonearm tweaks

http://www.audioasylum.com/index.html

Go to Audio Asylum, click on the vinyl discussions, and pose your question there. There are a lot of do it yourself, and down right cheap things that can be done to improve things. Also, not all the people here advise spending huge bucks for things. I've found quite a few of them that are downright helpful, some have sent me things for nothing, and many have taken the time to be helpful. Every forum has those that tell you to "sell your crappy stuff and buy what I have" Stay away from them.

As you suggested,I went back and read one of your threads on tonearm tweaks which discussed adding lead fishing weights protruding from the vertical axis. I am not an audio expert but I did study college physics enought to make me wonder that such a small weight attached so close to the axis could have a measureable effect. Did you actually calculate the change in resistance to angular momentum that would result from this to determine its significance? It seems to me that a much longer outrigger arm would be needed such as a rigid wire attached perpendicular to the arm with the weights at the end. Inertia would increase in proportion to distance of weight from the pivot point.

My question concerning sand in the arm, which you said was "out of the question" would also increase the inertia of the arm and with proper counter weighting, would be indistinguishable, in terms of the physics, from your outrigger,in the horizontal dimension. It would also increase inertia in the vertical direction. (But there may be other reasons why sand in the arm is a bad idea).
It seems to me more physics is need here. It is interesting to hear that someone is "blow away" by a tweak but the audio press is full of too much of this hype to give it credibility without solid analytical justification.

Putting sand in the arm to increase the arm's mass would require a change in cartridge, because the same cartridge cannot work well with a low mass arm and a high mass arm, as I understand it ... the arm's mass must be appropriate for the compliance of the cartridge.

It's one thing to balance an arm with a counter balance, but increasing the arm's mass would appear to be more detrimental than helpful to me, possibly even damaging.

As I understand it, compliance is how much a cantilever bends in response to the weight of the cartridge. I was not proposing to change the weight, just the mass. Mass and weight are very different things. With counterbalance a cartridge can exhibit no weight but be quite massive.

Jyprez. The increase in vertical mass is the problem with adding the sand. So it is distinguishable(in terms of physics) from my tonearm mod, because my mod does not affect vertical mass. I assure you if you load your arm with sand, you will be unhappy with the result. Warp tracking will be hideous.

Yes, I calculated the horizontal mass increase in my tonearm mod. And the distance of the weights is 1.75" outside the center of the pivot on both sides, so there is an increase in inertia from the length of the outriggers, as well as just the pure mass. This mod works, and is calculable, and proven in testing.

As far as credibility goes, you may do as much analysis of it as you like. It is not for sale, so it makes no difference to me whether anybody likes it or not. Several testers as well as myself are enjoying some significant benefits from this mod. Very few others even showed any interest. So no hype is necessary, because anybody that wants it can make it themselves, and if they don't want it, I don't care. I have given up trying to convince people. Now I just post my information, and leave it at that.