Can an old Thorens Table be "Over Dampend" to the point where sound is adversely effected?

I’m with you on this Raul. The "too controlled" sound some characterize the Rock as possessing is imo the lack of table/arm/cartridge resonances. But then I’m a London user, and it benefits more than most other cartridges from the damping!

Geoch, the damping trough actually WAS offered as a separate item by Townshend years ago. It can be added to any table which has it’s platter and armboard attached to the plinth. In other words, it can be added to any non-suspended table, and even suspended designs such as the VPI HW-19. It obviously can not be used on the Linn, Acoustic Research, or any other suspended sub-chassis design where the platter and arm are separated from the plinth by springs. The little tube that is mounted on the arm’s headshell and is immersed in the trough’s damping fluid MUST move in tandem with the structure the arm and platter are mounted to. If that sounds confusing, one look at the design will explain all. And no, my separate trough is NOT for sale!

"Over-damped" implies there is an optimal amount of damping. At one time, the Linn Sondek and Oracle Delphi were considered the two best tables available. Their designs could not have been more different; the Oracle employed damping (particularly of the LP by it's mat), the Linn not. They sounded very different, people preferring one to the other. Was the Oracle over-damped, or the Linn under-damped?

A table's design is a combination of many different elements, offered as a complete package by it's designer. Perhaps it's better to leave a given design as is, and if one wants a more or less damped table, get one designed as such.

But as a mechanical transducer, why would one want the table itself to add vibrations or resonances of it's own to the tiny vibrations contained in the LP groove? There was a table designed from the ground up, done as a research project at an engineering college in England. A fundamental element of it's design is a trough of damping fluid, in which a little hollow tube attached to the tonearm's headshell is immersed. This damping system greatly reduces the resonant frequency inherent in all tonearm/cartridge pairings, as well as absorbing and dissipating any stray vibrations and resonances in the cartridge body and tonearm. It also, very importantly, "locks" the front end of the arm to the table, just as the bearings do at the rear of the arm. Robert Greene called the original Townshend Rock Turntable a legend in TAS, and the latest version of the table (Mk.7) just went out of production, a new version promised soon. One of the best kept secrets in Hi-Fi! Is it over-damped? Or are all other tables under-damped?