Damping fluid/grease for Mayware Unipivot?

I reiterate: turntablebasics silicone fluid is quite cheap, real-world price. I have tons of experience with Maywares and other unipivots: olive oil is only good if your 'table has utterly no dynamics, where damping is not required. The more dynamic the sound of your 'table/tonearm/cartridge combo, the more beneficial damping is. The thicker the fluid the more damping an equivalent amount of fluid will apply. Turntablebasics has various grades which they explain in full on their website, click on it. "Standard" fluid provided by Mayware or any other company is meaningless, as it depends on the cartridge and turntable used, and can only be done by ear. A little fluid which is very thick gives the same damping as a lot of thin fluid. Buy the trurtablebasics-recommended fluid for tonearms, and experiment by ear (a lot to a little or none at all) to get the best result. The Mayware/Ortofon combo on a belt-drive requires only a little damping with thinner oil, any more and the dynamics and bass disappear. The Mayware/Ortofon combo on my Lenco requires a lot of thick silicone fluid (the cup filled to the top) because the Lenco dynamics are outrageous. There is no standard.

Johnnantais, thanks for the turntablebasics pointer it was useful in providing a practical viscosity range. I am slowly getting there with a bit of help.

The reason I would still like to know the viscosity of the Mayware supplied silicone fluid it that varying from full to empty should cover the required damping for most cartridges.

I am surprised the turntable has a noticeable effect. By dynamics do you mean structure-borne sound from the motor/bearing?

It should be emphasised that manufacturer's specs are only a guide and can't predict the effects of a cartridge/tonearm combo in the real world.Listen to Jean.The cartridge/tonearm resonance itself is at the core of this issue.A paper by Paol Ladegaard in the Vinyl Asylum library explains this if you care to do further reading.

HI Andy, as Styefan points out there is the arm/cartrdige resonance point which varies according to the cartrdige used. Generally speaking, the lower the compliance of a given cartrdige the more damping you will need. By dynamics in record players i don't menaa noise at all, but out and out dynamics, slam, speed. You'll find as I did, if you change record players to something with more energy, that a given amount of fluid on a "regular" turntable is suddenly not enough on a slamming turntable. The increased dynamics changes/excites the resonances already in the arm/cartridge. Since the only way to assess the situation is by ear given all the variables, then manufacturer recommended fluids are moot. Most of them anyway were silicone fluid identical to the recommended silicone fluid sold for $10 at turntablebasics. For an example: the Mayware/Ortofon on a modded AR-XA worked very well with some motor oil, about one-third full. This same tonearm/cartridge on the Lenco required the entire cup be filled with the much thicker silicone fluid, as the Lenco's speed and bass are far more taxing (like a high-performance car). If you buy the silicone fluid then try one drop at a time (the decca International for instance takes only a very small drop of fluid, and it makes a HUGE difference nevertheless) until you hit a sweet spot, it's the only way, and the thicker silicone fluid gives you more range. Good luck.

I am still confused about dynamics. Dynamics is a good thing but the consequence of good dynamics is more structure borne sound in the tonearm. In order to dissipate this one needs to add more viscous damping. Is this correct?

I realize I am wandering a bit from the original topic but a couple of questions:

With the Lenco, by adding a lot more damping does this overdamp the arm/cartridge resonance and have a detrimental effect on both the bass response and the handling of warped or non-concentric records?

What is mechanically different about a turntable with good dynamics and one without? That is, what has changed for the better in the chain: housing - (suspension) - platter - record - cartridge - tonearm - (suspension) - housing