Vertical damping and counterweight orientation on Moerch DP8

 

I know, maybe it is not good to spend such long time with a tonearm that has so many technical disavantages. The arm tubes cannot be that rigid since their fixing method. And then they are not even tapered to avoid vibrations. The continuity of the cabling is broken for the very same reason. Not only in one point from the cartridge to the din connector at the tonearm base, but also at the tonearm tube - tonearm base level. Could you cope with the fact that this fragile connection is held on place with pins touching togheter by pression?And the lateral weights are like big vibration captureing devices. 

But at the end it sounds fairly good to me and also to many others even if they didn't buy it. Yes at the end something can sound poorly in principle and good in reality or sound good in theory and bad in reality. I prefer the former case.

Let's get into the heavy subject: It is stated that generally vertical damping is not an advantage in this tonearm.

Few have written it does something in their set up. A friend hifi distributor of mine says it is better with vertical damping. Others say it does not change the sound.

When we have different answers we have to consider different things. Of course the first is lazyness...

or better: the fastidiousness of the procedings.

One thing is to moove the tonearm from a turntable to another. Another thing is to try different silicon density and another one is to wipe it off from the well and put it in again. And another is,at the end of all this, to play with the length of the axe that dips in the silicon well of this tonearm.

But I wanted to have a definitive answer to it. It is better to assume it works better in one way of another. It is much simpler to rest satisfied. But you know how it is...satisfaction does not last forever. We are not in the Garden of Eden and everybody knows what happen to the only people there.

I have made about one year of testing. I have used this tonearm in different turntable with different cartridges and different tonearm cables and the answer is, unfortunately or fortunately it depends how you will receive this information, it makes a difference. Sometimes this difference is slightly better, sometimes slightly worse. But this slight thing makes an important matter at a certain level, surely at the level of this tonearm. I don't think anybody will buy a tonearm of this caliber if for him small difference were not vital.

What  when damping is too much: the sound is darker and less agile. Less rithmically involving.

What happens when it is too little or nothing: the sound is responsive and rithmically expressive with a little brillance, a little shine similar to some silver cables. Some, since it is not always the case in silver cables.

Between these two for me it is always better the second. I don't like a darker and less rithmically involving sound.

What about the best result? The best result is a longer journey result.

First of all the silicon density. Yes I have tried different silicon density. You can easily find different silicon density for RC cars differencial use.

The best came out to be of 100K.

When you put about 0.2ml of this silicon in the Moerch well for vertical dumping and you play with the vertical shaft length to get it right you are going to find a setting where you feel indeniably that like this is correct. Everything snaps in time and focus and tone. It has more or less the same effect of changing the cartridge impedence matching in your phono preamp. 

Records that were difficult to listen to become really OK! This wa for me the best adventage for me. I hate records of which music I love to be reproduced in a way that does not allow me to enjoy them. 

The problem is that this everything is not stable. It means you didn't find the best for every combination. You have find the best for a certain cartridge. And worse... for a certain tonearm cable. Worse still: for a certain combination of cartridge and tonearm cable in a certain turntable. And of course your choosen arm tube (green, red or blu) you use.

For example in the Kuzma Stabi Ref 2 and EMT cartridge with a green arm tube I have found out that the vertical shaft had to be lifted  out to mesure 12mm from the base where it is seated (11.5mm is the shortest mesurement allowed according to the manual). But this with a certain tonearm cable. With another tonearm cable it was better at 14.5mm out

In a Thorens TD124 with an Ortofon SPU Gold on a blu arm tube the best was to leave the vertical damping shaft all the way in 11.5mm out. This was the case with all the three tonearms cable tried. Maybe because it is a non suspended design and a direct drive... 

With a Linn LP12... better without vertical damping!

This is just so you have an idea of it.

So yes, generally vertical damping in this tonearm is not an advantage but if you want it all out of it, it can be crucial.

Of course certain systems are much more reactive then others. If your system does not react or you don't react to different vibration device like cones or platforms and so on, or for you any cartridge loading sound the same, it is useless you try out the best vertical damping.

At the end it is somehow intuitive. The vertical damping has not only a mecanical influence but also a vibrational one. Anything we put in the system and that connect things togheter is a vibrational device that will add or subtract things to make things worse or better.

I feel that the option of vertical damping is perfect for the ones that have one turntable one tonearm cable and one cartridge. You find the correct setting and then forget about it.

It is good to have this option. It is good to know that you can have a possibility to tune it. 

It is a bad thing to think you have the possibility to tune it for the better but you don't do it. 

Yes, it is a question of fastidiousness. 

The best answer would be: generally the vertical damping in this tonearm does not improve the sound if you don't want to mess with it but it could.

The counterweight.

You have three main counterweights with this tonearm.  I am not talking about the lateral ones but the ones you need to balance the cartridge and apply the correct VTF. These three counterweights have an eliptical shape. Then you have a fourth counterweight, perfectly round, that is easier to moove to achieve the smallest difference of weight. I hate this one. It it mooves too freely. I would have much prefered it to be a little tighter with its o-ring.

In the owner manual it showed how to get a dynamic balance with the main counterweights. Sometimes this is achieved rotating it or both either with the larger part in the top position or in the lower position. You could also have, if you nned more then one to balance the weight of the used cartridge, one rotated in a way and another one rotated in the opposite way.

The thing is that the rotation of it or thenm changes the sound.

I have found out, with different turntables and cartridges, so the effect is repetable, that using the counterweight with their larger side up gets the sound more unified and more linear in a sense. Using the counterweight with its larger side down gives you more drive and dynamic contrast. The best combination of course depends upon your system and your taste, but more I would say about your taste since tried in different configuration the outcome is the same. 

Naim Powerline

 

It is quite probable that you are not going to like this cable. It is quite probable you are going to dismiss this cable for many reasons.

It does not sound good out of the box.

It is not going to sound that great out from a Naim system.

It is a cable that needs a lot of patience from your part. 

You have to accept from faith that it is a good cable and if it does not sound good it is not its fault.

Generally, it means always, we are up in a hifi situation when we have controlled the bad things by smoothing things out. Highs are too aggressive, we get a smoother cable here and there. But when we are using "smothers" we are loosing some information, spatial, timbric or rithmic and surely we are using filters.

High end systems sound good and uninvolving. We admire them  without caring about them at the same time. Most of the time they don't reproduce the essence of the music. Only a clean sequences of notes and very silent spaces.

So we have a mid high, high end system and we insert this cable in. What we will ear after about 300 ours of burning in? If we listen before this burn in period this cable could sound even worse then a $10 for 1m Belden power cable, that by my standard is a very decent cable.

So after this long burn in period you will ear that the sound stange get more compact. The propulsive energy is concentrated in a smaller scale landscape. The bass is well controlled, go very low but you feel it is sometimes too dry. The mid hig are very open and tense. The highs are neither very extended not very controlled.There is a sensation of things being tense, and soon you will become tired of it. You will go back to your previous cable with aural confort.

OK, once again you wanted to upgrade and things went on the wrong side. You take the cable away and hope to sell to Naim owners. Yes because I don't think it would be easy to sell it to other people.

But what happen if you accept by faith that this cable sounds good and what you are hearing are...

It is going to show all the vibration issues on your hifi. You think it is bright or it is forward only because you didn’t fix the vibration well in your sistem.

This was an impossible task with other higher end power cables. They tend to smooth things out and wash also the timbre out in the meantime and sometimes rithm too. But they are polite. They have a calming effect on your hifi problem. I think is because the Powerline is extremely open in the mid-high region that the vibrations issues of the system will show. The Powerline will show how manipulative and coloured high end power cables generally are to smooth things out and to low the noise floor.

The most notable thing in this cable is its medium frequencies section: it is more open then you thought could be. After you try another cable it will almost inevitably feel shut off in this region or if not shut of or recessed a little foggy.

This cable is raw. It means it leaves your system breath. 

It is very different from other power cables. It is not for fixing or improving things out, is to let things out. So this can be a good or a bad thing.

It will give you some work since it behaves completely differently from other power cables. 

I personally find this work to be worthed. I always found that it is quite easy to calm down a system, but to give life to a system that is on sedation is very difficult. 

With the Powerline your system, after correct use and matching, will either sound bad or good depending on your work, but it will never sound boring. And I hate boring systems.

Cardas Clear Beyond and Clear Reflection power

 

Cardas again! What a strange thing for me. I have never listened for a very long time Cardas cables. My listening experience with Cardas stopped at the time of Golden Reference. Now, after many years I can appreciate what evolution does. 

I have already said that in the past I was not really a Cardas fan. Not because they were not good cables, they always have been good, but I felt they were more like fixing cables. For most systems it was a good thing, but when you were putting togheter components that were blending well togheter, I have found Cardas cables were retaining informations, dynamic and rytmic abilities.

You know how it is, most of us are only partially intelligent. We have an experience in time and we project it in the future with a forever stamp on it. It is for this stupid reason that I was not listening to Cardas cables. Even though I have to admit, I have herd few times systems sounding extremely well with a complete Cardas set up. But they had to be completely Cardas cabled. 

Now after many years I have to say that Cardas sound has changed, and these changements were all positive. I think now Cardas sound can be more universally appealing. 

Let's start with the Reflection. Reflection sound is fluid and slightly raw at the same time. It is a strange feeling!  I think it is a question of microinformation. It is not the quitest cable,  but within this not complete quiteness and black background it gives a kind of "educated freedom".

This cable is also rithmically capable. In the absolute scale I can only say it is slightly dynamically restricted and the bass is...not the strongest point, but well blended with everything else. I guess if the bass was different it would not sound this fluid any more and maybe it will be more heavy handed and this last thing is something I really dislike. It is similar soundind to the old Golden reference power, but more fluid, less coarse and less upfront. 

The Clear Beyond sounds very different.

The first thing we notice are  actually two: the dynamic window is more open and its silence is deeper, much deeper.

These two attributes makes for a less propulsive sound and more space for everything to happen. But it gives also the impression to slight alter the time, not the timing! You get the feeling timeis slightly expanded, that music is less constrained. It is a faster then the Reflection but it seams slower for this time thing. A little like a professional F1 driver against a very good driver. When we see the good driver in the circuit we think he goes very fast, its driving comes out as aggressive. Then you see the F1 driver in the same circuit with the same car. It seams he goes slower, that he has more time to express his skills, and his controll over the car and the circuit, he floats, everything is smooth, no compensation in the trajectories, it seams the car goes on invisible rails. At the end this apparent slower perception will be time recorded as a much faster lap!

This is the thing that happens with the Beyond. 

One thing that I was absolutely not prepared for was to realise that Cardas Reflection does not blend that well with Clear Beyond. In the past I could have mixed every Cardas and they would have mixed well togheter. The Reflection power blend perfectly with Reflection interconnect and loudspeaker cable, but not so with Clear interconnect. And the opposite is also true.

But the Beyond is a more universal cable then the Reflection. It blended well also with a Naim NAC A5 speaker cables that is very difficult to pair with almost anything. The Beyond is a cable that easily tend to disappear. This is an excellent thing, but if your system has been covered by some pushing from cables to compensate a laziness or whatever adding the Beyond will make it sound the component connected how it should. This is how things should be. But at the end the result it is going to be less "involving" you are going to think it is the cable while it is not. I have tried many combination and this was clearly shown. For this reason I think the best way to assemble a system is to have very neutral cables and then at the end matching the components. But most of us already have components so we try to get what works best with them in our listening room.

I have the impression that when you go Clear you should get everything in the Clear range. And that the Clear range blends well with other brands too. This is because Clear range is more neutral and leaves very litle signature on its own.

The Reflection is beautiful, but its beauty is more delicate, you have to respect it more, you have to put it in a more sympathetic context. But if you already have a Reflection somewhere, go and "reflect" everything else and you will be an happy guy! The ending result is extremely balanced.

Except for one thing. Don't put a Reflection feeding your power strip feeding other Cardas cables. The sound will suffer. Don't ask me why...

Cable confrontation: Naim NAC A5 VS Straight Wire Virtuoso H

At one of my friend's house with my Kuzma Ref2 turntable. He wanted to listen to it in his system, and then we said why don't we make a video of the cables we are listening to?

And here you have it. A confrontation between two "immortals" speaker audio cables. Both are still in production after many years and both are extremely good value for the money.

The Naim is difficult to make it sound this way. It needs more then 400 hours of break in and has to be correctly dressed. If not you are going to discharge it after 5min listening, but you will never catch its value. The Straigh Wire is of a very easy interface with most amplifier speaker combination.

 Whatch it on you tube and you will have the subtitle to know which cable you are listening to.

It will be nice if you will write your thoughts and preference!