Morch DP6 and vertical damping - pros & cons??

Thanks, Doug. When Chris and I took the DP6 and ZYX cartridge out for a test run on his Model 255, the tonearm had zero silicone damping in it and the system sounded really good. I will take your advice and leave the pivot point chamber without silicone fluid in it.

I hope to finish the turntable set up tonight so I can start listening to my vinyl again. :-D

Holly

Hopefully Raul or someone else who uses the DP-6 will step up and give you experienced, hands-on guidance. I know Morch cautions agains overdamping, thus my caution.

We prefer no damping in the trough of our TriPlanar, but the mechanisms are completely different so that means little to you. If the Morch acts at all like a Graham 2.2 then some amount of damping will be beneficial. It may be very touchy though, and very tiny additions or deletions are audible.

Once concern is that different cartridges may prefer different damping. This is actually pretty likely. If you had two armwands and two widely different cartridges, you might have trouble optiizing for both.

But all that is way in the future. Glad to hear you're about ready to spin again. Go party!

Hi there,
No experience of the Morch but after to speaking to the designer, I decided to try damping fluid once more in my Kuzma Stogi S.
Initial attempts lead me to use it undamped with my zyx Airy 11.
Other changes to the system have made it a lot more transparent and the zyx, at least in my system, seems to work much better across the board with damping applied.
Still very,very dynamic with better control and much tighter bass. Nitpicking it might have rolled of the top end a bit but the fluid is a pain to work with so not keen to start experimenting with the amount in the trough.
I would try it undamped then add the fluid in stages.

Simon

Dear Holly: I try my Dp-6 with severals cartridges. I always use it with out vertical damping: it works wonderfull on that way. I talk directly with the designer and he agree that this tonearm don't need that vertical damping.

This tonearm is a great design and great execution design. No, you don't need that extra damping.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

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Holly,
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I think both Doug's and Raul's comments are valuable
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I would suggest a melding of both their points in that you start without any damping fluid, wait 200 hours (more than the 100 Doug recommended, I think more break-in time would be important).
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Then, if the damping fluid is easily removed, try adding some damping fluid in miniscule amounts (literally one small droplet at the end of a toothpick) at a time and listen using the same reference LP that you know well and displays all of the frequency ranges. It is a long process, but well worth the effort if it works in your set up..
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Below are a couple of links for threads on Audiogon, related to using damping fluid on a Graham 2.2 arm that will give you some additional insight. It is not directly related to a DP-6, but the dialogue is well worth your time to read.
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http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1108179762&openusid&zzCello&4&5#Cello
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http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1096560646&openusid&zzCello&4&5#Cello
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Where as Raul may end up being right, I think it is well worth the time to experiment in your system with your cartridge.
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I once spoke with a Graham rep at a demo of a new Graham Arm and he had not put any effort into getting the damping fluid right and did not seem to realize the huge value in having the right amount of fluid in a Graham arm. I am not sure that the manufacturers always have as much experience with their own products in some areas as some of the customers do.
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Doug and I were together when we found out how important getting the correct amount of fluid was on a Graham arm with an Airy cartridge. The sonic improvement was startling.
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I can’t tell from Raul’s post if he has tried experimenting with the damping fluid or not. If he has, not then he might be missing an opportunity to get even better sound from his system.
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Rgds,
Larry