Dear @millercarbon and friends : " Of course they need to be damped. The question is in what way? And how much? "
Totally in agreement. Yes, one way or other tonearms must be damped.
As a fact any analog rig item and the whole room/system needs always some kind of damping even electronics at its circuit boards passive and active parts, same for loudspeakers but at the analog rig and due that is almost a mechanical " system " the damping down there is need it no matters what.
Room/systems can't avoid its ( any kind. ) developed resonances/vibrations that per sé always degrades the audio signal.
Resonances/vibrations is the true DEVIL that impedes to have better quality level listening experiences in any room/audio system and we can't avoid/disappears totally, the only alternative is to lower the levels of those resonances/frequencies and this can be achieved using different dampening solutions.
In what way? ( example in room ): acoustic treatment as bass traps, acoustic panels and difussors.
How much?, this is a really hard to say/answer because depends on many factors.
It's not only the need or not to damp the tonearm but to take in count that tonearm is part of the analog rig because is mounted/attached to a TT that is seated ( normally ) in a damped plattform but some times it's not over that kind of plattforms and things about goes with higher resonances/vibrations developed around it.
I think that we need to analize the complete analog rig to decide that " how much ".
The TT it self is a resonance/vibration source always through its motor, plinth, platter, bearing and arm board.
One way or the other we need to take care that the whole TT be good damped and after that we can focus in the cartridge/tonearm damping and here exist variables that we have to take in count to define the damping issue: we need to own a good platter mat, A PLATTER/lp CLAMP, TO KNOW THE CARTRIDGE SELF TRACKING HABILITIES ( NOT ONLY ITS COMPLIANCE ), cartridge/tonearm resonance frequency, how good is damped the cartridge it self ( example the AT ART1 has a titanium body and has a rubber body cover at the below plate. ), obviously how well is damped the tonearm design and how good is the tonearm bearing and if it's an unipivot desing or gimball type or LT, how many play hours has the cartridge stylus tip, SPL usually we listen the LPs.
All those " characteristics " and several others ( like an accurated cartridge/tonearm alignment set up. ) will condition what we can do about and that through several controled listening tests can confirm that " how much " and where.
As we can see not an easy task and our music/sound trained ears levels and room/siytem resolution will have the final decision with each cartridge/tonearm combination.
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
Totally in agreement. Yes, one way or other tonearms must be damped.
As a fact any analog rig item and the whole room/system needs always some kind of damping even electronics at its circuit boards passive and active parts, same for loudspeakers but at the analog rig and due that is almost a mechanical " system " the damping down there is need it no matters what.
Room/systems can't avoid its ( any kind. ) developed resonances/vibrations that per sé always degrades the audio signal.
Resonances/vibrations is the true DEVIL that impedes to have better quality level listening experiences in any room/audio system and we can't avoid/disappears totally, the only alternative is to lower the levels of those resonances/frequencies and this can be achieved using different dampening solutions.
In what way? ( example in room ): acoustic treatment as bass traps, acoustic panels and difussors.
How much?, this is a really hard to say/answer because depends on many factors.
It's not only the need or not to damp the tonearm but to take in count that tonearm is part of the analog rig because is mounted/attached to a TT that is seated ( normally ) in a damped plattform but some times it's not over that kind of plattforms and things about goes with higher resonances/vibrations developed around it.
I think that we need to analize the complete analog rig to decide that " how much ".
The TT it self is a resonance/vibration source always through its motor, plinth, platter, bearing and arm board.
One way or the other we need to take care that the whole TT be good damped and after that we can focus in the cartridge/tonearm damping and here exist variables that we have to take in count to define the damping issue: we need to own a good platter mat, A PLATTER/lp CLAMP, TO KNOW THE CARTRIDGE SELF TRACKING HABILITIES ( NOT ONLY ITS COMPLIANCE ), cartridge/tonearm resonance frequency, how good is damped the cartridge it self ( example the AT ART1 has a titanium body and has a rubber body cover at the below plate. ), obviously how well is damped the tonearm design and how good is the tonearm bearing and if it's an unipivot desing or gimball type or LT, how many play hours has the cartridge stylus tip, SPL usually we listen the LPs.
All those " characteristics " and several others ( like an accurated cartridge/tonearm alignment set up. ) will condition what we can do about and that through several controled listening tests can confirm that " how much " and where.
As we can see not an easy task and our music/sound trained ears levels and room/siytem resolution will have the final decision with each cartridge/tonearm combination.
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.