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.
