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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
ptmconsulting
1,000 posts
 
I tried the silicon in my DP6, and decided to take it out after a while. It just constrained the dynamics too much. Wich I knew about those sticks, because getting it out of the well with toothpicks was a big PITA.
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
rodrigaj
32 posts
 
Holly-
Are you saying that Mehran can't / won't sell you a syringe of the silicone fluid?

I have no idea of the viscosity of the fluid I have, but I do know that if I wanted to experiment with it, I would just buy it from Mehran. One syringe of the stuff will last you a lifetime of experimentation, even if you only get about a 6ml syringe.

If you don't want to or can't buy it from Mehran, then I would go with the medium viscosity of 30000cst offered by Turntable Basics. I don't think you could go wrong with this.

This is all pretty much trial and error anyway. As long as you can get the stuff out easily enough, you can experiment all you want. I think that in the end, one has to stop and "enjoy the music". Turntables can drive you crazy if you let them :-)
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
rpfef
110 posts
 
I fear this suggestion is a bit old fashioned but I find the technique works pretty well most of the time.
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