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Silicone fluid for Moerch tonearm damping?

I have never tried to add silicone fluid to the tonearm well on my Moerch DP-6 tonearm, just used it for the pickup lifter, but have been told that it might help me with the new cartridge I will be getting, a Denon DL-103. The Moerch tonearm (blue dot) at 14 grams is a bit less than the effective mass that the Denon cartridge prefers and I was told that damping the tonearm might help with tracking and just make the whole set up sound better. I am willing to give this a try, but I seem to have misplaced the container of silicone 'fluid' that came with the tonearm and can't find any specs about what actual fluid was recommended by Moerch.

Does anyone know what weight of silicone fluid (oil?) should be used for the Moerch tonearms? Turntable Basics sells damping fluid, but I need to know which weight would be best.

(FYI, I did email Moerch about this, but haven't received an answer (someone told me I am not likely to ever get an answer from them. :-( ) and I also emailed Sorasound, the USA distributor, but received a "canned" response from Mehran saying he was in Belgium until near the end of the month and that I should email him again at that time.)
oakiris

Showing 8 responses by oakiris

oakiris OP
206 posts
 
Well, guess I am on my own with this! If I decide I need to dampen the tonearm after listening to what the system sounds like without it, I will just get the lightest oil (10,000 cst) and go from there.

Holly
oakiris OP
206 posts
 
lol - Mehran is definitely a good guy, in my limited experience, never occurred to me that he might be telling me a story about being in Belgium!

No response from Moerch (surprise!) or Hudson Audio (another Moerch distributor) so I may have to wait for Mehran to return. Luckily, I am not in a hurry - I don't even have my cartridge yet, thanks to Comet Supply's shenanigans.

Holly
oakiris OP
206 posts
 
Happy V-Day, Mofimadness! I definitely plan to listen, and to listen for a while, before I add any damping fluid.

I read one post, or review, or something about just adding a drop at a time - but if you add one drop too many... And if you do put in too much, I can't imagine it is all that easy to remove it!

If only my cartridge was here I would be listening to my records this weekend. Comet Supply now says USPS has probably lost my package, and they will send me another cartridge, but they have to wait until USPS gets back to them to make sure that this is the case. I can see this dragging on for another month.

Holly
oakiris OP
206 posts
 
"I believe Hudson Audio has been hors de combat for a few years." Not sure what you mean by this - are they out of business??

I did hear back from Moerch - from Hans Moerch himself. He didn't answer my questions though, just said to contact Mehran. lol That was a waste of my time - and his!

Holly
oakiris OP
206 posts
 
lol - I knew what hors de combat meant, just didn't know - and still don't know - what that means in reference to Hudson Audio. I never got a response from them so I will interpret it to mean that they are out of business.

Thank you for your thorough explanation of your experience with damping the Moerch DP-6, Rodrigaj - and I was wondering how you would remove the damping fluid if you decided you didn't like the results, so, like Ptmconsulting, I am happy to find out an easy method of doing so.

Unfortunately, I don't have a way to use headphones with my 2-channel rig; I would love to do so, but my power amp has only one set of outputs, for the speakers, and I don't really want to add another switch box to the mix in order to choose between speakers and headphone amp for the output.

I actually heard back from both Hans Moerch and Mehran, but neither of them answered my question about what weight of silicone fluid should be used. I don't understand why it is such a secret... lol

@Rodrigaj - You said the silicone fluid is of high viscosity - should I get the heaviest weight/CST available then?

Holly
oakiris OP
206 posts
 
I don't know what is going on with Mehran. Hans Moerch apparently forwarded the email I sent to him about the damping fluid to Mehran, so Mehran had that email as well as the one I originally sent at the beginning of February. He responded on 2/19 by saying he had already answered my email, I told him the email he had sent to me only said that he couldn't answer my email until he returned from Belgium, again let him know what my question was....and he has not responded since then.

I will go with your recommendation of the 30000 CST oil. Thanks Rodrigaj!

Holly
oakiris OP
206 posts
 
lol - I hate using the phone because I am tied to it all day by my work, plus I like to have the "paper trail" made possible by emails. But, point taken - if I decide I want to go through with damping the tone arm and I can't live without finding out exactly what Moerch uses, I will call Mehran. :-P

Holly
oakiris OP
206 posts
 
lol - I agree with you, Ptmconsulting. I won't go through the hassle until I actually know if the tonearm needs the damping fluid. I didn't realize it would end up being a hassle when I started this thread, of course. I was sure someone here would know exactly what weight of fluid/oil was required, just as I was sure that either Mehran or Moerch or both would respond to me quickly with the information.

I am planning to first try the set up with no tonearm damping and take some time to really listen to what the DL-103 and Moerch tonearm sound like together. I am hopeful that the system sounds just fine without me having to experiment with tonearm damping.

Holly
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