found this on the internet about tonearms:So what happens to all that energy transmitted into the arm wand? Some of it gets dissipated into the material of the arm wand, some lost in the coupling between the metal and whatever it touches such as the counterweight, the cable and so on. Most of the energy though will travel up the arm wand (which is normally a tube just like a woodwind or brass instrument) at a resonant frequency and the harmonics of that frequency till it meets a point of resistance, which will normally be the bearing where it will bounce and reflect or refract back again. So again, under our microscope imagine what is happening to the arm wand and the bearing. The waves are both traveling through the material of the wand and over its surfaces. At the same time the entire arm wand is shaking, that is moving back and forth and side to side. When it meets the balls in the bearing it will bounce off them and cause them to bounce against their bearing race. This is known as bearing chatter. In theory and with many caveats, the tighter the fit and the tolerances in the bearing, the less it will chatter.
