Silicone for Tri-Planer damping trough

We crackpots are everywhere!

To quote another thread where I got myself in hot water, we find the TriPlanar's silicone damping "intolerable". That is with a Shelter 901 and various ZYX's.

To our ears it kills HF extension and dampens everything rather artificially. I believe that's the majority view among TriPlanar owners, but YMMV of course. If it's the kind of thing you like, you'd like it.

I don't know what viscosity silicone Tri Mai recommends. You could always buy a tube from him. It's shown on his website.

Interesting observations, Thom.

Cello and I confirmed the benefits of SirSpeedy's very fine tuning of damping on the Graham 2.2. It is far more particular than a 50% move this way or that. To get the most from that arm you really must adjust the damping fluid to within the smallest drop you can pick up with a toothpick.

Our TriPlanar does not act like that. Like you, we find even the tiniest possible amount of damping is too much. IOW, I agree the TriPlanar VII is an essentially low resonance arm that requires little taming. (I won't say "no" taming, since the Schroeder Reference is, IME, slightly quieter.)

Doug

P.S. It is just as easy to fine-tune damping on a TriPlanar as on a Schroeder. Just adjust how much of the screw is submerged in the fluid. There's no need to fiddle the amount of fluid in the trough.

How ironic. The arm that doesn't really need fluid damping provides a quick and easy way to fine tune it. Other arms that need very finely adjusted fluid damping make it a royal PIA to do. What a great hobby! ;-)

Jack43,

Glad you're enjoying the new setup! I've never heard a WT, but from its design I'd expect to hear just what you described on switching to a TriPlanar. Silicone damping seems to work okay in the bearing well of some unipivots but other applications are dubious, as attested by all the negative results posted on this thread. To design an entire arm around it does seem like looking for trouble.

We used to get more "honking" than we do now (which is almost never). Turns out it had nothing to do with the cartridge or arm. It was our phono and/or line stage. I don't know the rest of your system, but that might be something to look at when upgrade-itis strikes again.

If you haven't done so already, check out this thread for some additional tips on getting the most from your new arm:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1117142645

Cheers and enjoy the music!
Doug