Tonearm dampening

[VintageDutch]

Thanks for the correction on your unit re direct drive. My Rotel is a "beater" simply for fun and I encourage you to try damping the arm and see if you like it. A quick way to check if basic damping makes a difference or not is to use "friction tape" which is available at hardware stores. It is adhesive impregnated cloth, acoustically dead, and any residual goo when you take it off cleans up instantly with alcohol. It wont address low frequency ringing but it does work on mid and high frequency resonances.

Try spiral wrapping the half of the arm closest to the pivot or two or three rings of tape in strategic places. You might be surprised at how much of the sound of your cartridge is actually the tonearm. You might hate the results but it only cost a few dollars and is easily reversible without leaving a trace. If it makes a difference and you like what you hear then welcome to the rabbit hole. And of course there will always be folks here that insist damping is a waste of time/always worth doing, that mods make turntables better/mods are stupid, etc. I say have fun and enjoy some great tunes.

@psemeraro It was not my idea to correct you but simply state the differences... Those are essential for the choices needed.
The Friction tape idea is not at all a bad idea... I did an experiment with Rubber O-ring's on the tonearm to battle the tonearm sound but it did not make an difference to me... maybe I placed them wrong or they had not enough mass...

Ill dive back in If I can find that tape over here in the Netherlands Thanks!

 

[psemeraro]

@psemeraro It was not my idea to correct you but simply state the differences... Those are essential for the choices needed.
The Friction tape idea is not at all a bad idea... I did an experiment with Rubber O-ring's on the tonearm to battle the tonearm sound but it did not make an difference to me... maybe I placed them wrong or they had not enough mass...

Ill dive back in If I can find that tape over here in the Netherlands Thanks!

Rubber O rings (natural rubber and silicone) didn't make a difference for me either, my guess is they dont apply enough pressure or have enough area.
Cheers

 

[cafe latte]

@psemeraro It was not my idea to correct you but simply state the differences... Those are essential for the choices needed.
The Friction tape idea is not at all a bad idea... I did an experiment with Rubber O-ring's on the tonearm to battle the tonearm sound but it did not make an difference to me... maybe I placed them wrong or they had not enough mass...

Ill dive back in If I can find that tape over here in the Netherlands Thanks!

I did a Kab mod recently and I followed his test results were amazing. I too tried O rings on the outside and cotton wool too neither did much.
INSIDE the tube the damping is constrained (google it). The join between the wobbly stuff and the steel there is tear stain and damping occurs, constrained and the damping happens again and again on the outside it is many times less effective. I put O rings on a Technics arm tube and dropped it onto a table it rattled and bounced all over the place, tape did the same cotton wool too. Then Kabs rubber tube inserted inside the arm tube (rewire of course) and drop arm tube with tube inside onto table and it stops dead no bouncing. Sound is amazing transformation. Hangover is gone detail is amazing I hear fingers on guitar frets that were simply not there before. Damping done right on an arm is amazing you cant overdamp either.
Chris