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Kab fluid damper

B

BillyB

Well-Known Member
I already have a good rumble filter I use on my SL-1600MKII.

I am wondering if I purchase a KAB damper will this product take the place of the rumble filter.....Should I run the damper and rumble filter separately or together.....

Would it be like wearing a belt along with a pair of suspenders??
 
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It will allow the stylus to better track difficult passages and keep it centered in the grove during the difficult tracking and not skitter.Some say that it is critical to bring the 1200 up to the next,best level that it can be.
 
It will likely not affect rumble. It is intended to dampen the tonearm's vibrations, not vibrations transmitted from elsewhere in the system.

I'm wondering why you're getting rumble at all... Technics DD tables are pretty quiet.
 
BillyB said:
I already have a good rumble filter I use on my SL-1600MKII.

I am wondering if I purchase a KAB damper will this product take the place of the rumble filter.....Should I run the damper and rumble filter separately or together.....
Click to expand...

I think you are confusing rumble with low frequency woofer pumping.
 
I own a KAB Damper and am rather skeptical of its benefits. ..If you're interested in hearing some before/after wav files, click the link. ..If you can hear any improvement with the damper engaged, then you have better hearing than I (and my hearing measures very well). ..Unless someone else is able to provide before/after samples that clearly demonstrate it's benefit, I'd save the money.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=494218&highlight=ODS123
 
If you have rumble in Technics, you need to fix/replace platter bearing. Nothing else will help. Also make sure you do not feel any play in tonearm bearings, if you do - adjust them.

Damper may help with sound of low compliance cartridges. With high compliance ones, it can make things worse.
 
BillyB said:
I already have a good rumble filter I use on my SL-1600MKII.

I am wondering if I purchase a KAB damper will this product take the place of the rumble filter.....Should I run the damper and rumble filter separately or together.....

Would it be like wearing a belt along with a pair of suspenders??
Click to expand...

The most common use with a rumble filter is to cut the resonance arm/cartridge, so the woofer in a bass reflex speaker is not pumping.

With a good fluid damping it will do the same to a large extent, without using the filter. However the KAB damper is not damping enough for this, the arm is still underdamped with it. It can be improved to damp enough, but not in stock form.
gusten
 
ODS123 said:
I own a KAB Damper and am rather skeptical of its benefits. ..If you're interested in hearing some before/after wav files, click the link. ..If you can hear any improvement with the damper engaged, then you have better hearing than I (and my hearing measures very well). ..Unless someone else is able to provide before/after samples that clearly demonstrate it's benefit, I'd save the money.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=494218&highlight=ODS123
Click to expand...

I currently am running 2 TECHNICS sl-1200s, one completely KABed and one bone stock, The KABed one has not only the fluid damper but outboard PS strobe disabler and CARDAS arm rewire. I have many carts I swap out, to my ears the KABed unit sounds only very slightly better than the stock unit. I have put the fluid damper on the stock unit and I couldn't tell any difference.
 
trackball02 said:
Will the KAB fluid damper work with all cartridge manufacturers, or is it best for specific brands?
Click to expand...

I have gotten significant improvement from my Grados and Denon DL-160. Other carts, not as much. It depends on how compliant and underdamped the suspension on the cartridge is.

kenvab55 said:
I currently am running 2 TECHNICS sl-1200s, one completely KABed and one bone stock, The KABed one has not only the fluid damper but outboard PS strobe disabler and CARDAS arm rewire. I have many carts I swap out, to my ears the KABed unit sounds only very slightly better than the stock unit. I have put the fluid damper on the stock unit and I couldn't tell any difference.
Click to expand...

That has not been my experience.
 
kenvab55 said:
I currently am running 2 TECHNICS sl-1200s, one completely KABed and one bone stock, The KABed one has not only the fluid damper but outboard PS strobe disabler and CARDAS arm rewire. I have many carts I swap out, to my ears the KABed unit sounds only very slightly better than the stock unit. I have put the fluid damper on the stock unit and I couldn't tell any difference.
Click to expand...

A fluid damper that works correctly should IMO be detected. The problem with KAB´s damper is that it damps too little, it doesn´t reduce the resonance optimally. I can understand why You cannot hear the other mods.
gusten
 
beatcomber said:
I'lll put it this way: I did not like my Grado Gold1 until I added the fluid dampener. Now it is one of my two top carts.
Click to expand...

Ok Beat. It seems to be a Grado thing.

I run a Grado Gold with an MCZ stylus so I will order the damper and report back.

Thanks
 
The KAB fluid damper has nothing to do with regards to resonance or rumble. All it really does is prevent excessive vertical motion. In essence, it basically just helps it stay in the groove, especially with warped records. I would actually imagine that it would have better results for lighter VTF, but I haven't really tried it for that.

All that I know is that it made a significant improvement with my Denon DL-110. It just kind of tightened things up a bit, reducing the congested sound that I get from it when music gets dense and loud (I listen to a lot of metal, so this can be a noticeable problem). Given that I record straight to digital and only really listen through headphones anyway, I don't experience woofer pumping. Basically, the fluid damper should just be helping with tracking, thereby reducing tracking-related distortion. It's honestly been my best purchase thus far for the Technics.

As far as the Grado being better with the fluid damper, this pretty much holds with what I just stated. I've heard that Grados can have trouble with tracking sometimes, thus making the fluid damper's assistance in that area a real boon.

I don't think I still have my before and after damper recordings, otherwise I'd post them. Sorry. :/
 
Packgrog said:
All that I know is that it made a significant improvement with my Denon DL-110.
Click to expand...

I'll second that re: the DL-160. I found it bright and rather lean on my 1200 before adding the dampener. I hated it.

Now it sounds surprisingly lush and full and musical - I was pretty surprised to discover that.
 
Packgrog said:
The KAB fluid damper has nothing to do with regards to resonance or rumble. All it really does is prevent excessive vertical motion. In essence, it basically just helps it stay in the groove, especially with warped records. I would actually imagine that it would have better results for lighter VTF, but I haven't really tried it for that.

All that I know is that it made a significant improvement with my Denon DL-110. It just kind of tightened things up a bit, reducing the congested sound that I get from it when music gets dense and loud (I listen to a lot of metal, so this can be a noticeable problem). Given that I record straight to digital and only really listen through headphones anyway, I don't experience woofer pumping. Basically, the fluid damper should just be helping with tracking, thereby reducing tracking-related distortion. It's honestly been my best purchase thus far for the Technics.

As far as the Grado being better with the fluid damper, this pretty much holds with what I just stated. I've heard that Grados can have trouble with tracking sometimes, thus making the fluid damper's assistance in that area a real boon.

I don't think I still have my before and after damper recordings, otherwise I'd post them. Sorry. :/
Click to expand...

What the damper does is damping the resonance amplitudes arm/cartridge suspension, to some extent. That is the only thing is does, there is no other purpose with a damper. When the arm wants to move fast it cannot do so because of the damping force.
gusten
 
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