TONEARM DAMPING : DAMPED OR NOT ? ? USELESS ? ? WELCOMED ? ?

As for mats I thought it was pretty well established that you want a material that has the same mechanical impedance as vinyl which is pretty hard. As for hold down vacuum is handily the best as it will perfectly flatten all records except the severely warped ones which should be thrown out any way. But what about those record flatteners? Really silly idea. When you warp a record you stretch the surface. Warps are caused by uneven heating of the record. The hot areas expand into the direction of least resistance forming the warp. If you reheat the record and compress the warp does the vinyl compress so that the molecules wind up in exactly the same place they started in? Highly unlikely. The surface remains distorted.

Dear @cleeds : " Wow! That’s electrical tape. I’d never put gooey sticky electrical tape on a pickup arm. "

Your statement disappoint me because I know you are way better than that.

The issue is not if it is electrical tape or what ever, the issue is that any tonearm arm wand need it that kind of damping that always ( no matters what. ) gives you a better quality level performance to what you are listening if your room/system has the quality resolution need it for.

"" If my arm needed that, I’d dump it and buy a proper arm. ""

then you have to give up/dump on analog/LP alternative because all tonearms need it ! !

Do it a favor to us and post areal contribution in the thread that really can helps to all of us on the thread subjects. Welcomed.

And do it your self a favor and test the Analog Survival Kit by Sumiko designed expressely for that purpose or any kind of tape you like even teflon tape can works very good too.

R.

rauliruegas

The issue is not if it is electrical tape or what ever, the issue is that any tonearm arm wand need it that kind of damping ...

I think the recommendation you made to wrap a pickup arm with electrical tape is an especially bad idea and very much the issue. There is no way I'd put that gooey, sticky product on any arm I've ever owned, and I wouldn't recommend it to others.

... you have to give up/dump on analog/LP alternative because all tonearms need it !

Sorry, I'm not abandoning LP based on your command.

Dear @antinn : great Audio article. I started to read Audio in 1979 along Stereo Review and High Fidelity magazynes and with out any single doubt Audio was the best even against any today audio magazynes.
Pisha writer and reviewer down there has an alignment cartridge/tonearm solution similar to Löfgren A and almost no one knows about him.
Was in Audio where for the very first time appeared the wholeLöfgren geometry alignment and the whys about and that was many many years ago.

Btw, here another first hand experience with that " lifeless " issue and its true meaning:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/best-harmless-signatureless-speakers-capacitors/post?postid=1...

That thread was and is one of the best and deep audio lessons through my audio life because I started it to find out the best " boutique " caps for my speakers and by my self I learned there by my self too that the cheap Wima, Kemet or Vishay ones are really the ONES. I owned Duelund, Mundorf, Sonicraft, V-caps, Jantzen and many more and nothing compares against what I stated in that thread.

I tested those humble caps, during the thread time,  in my speakers and in a really critical electronics position: rigth at the input of my 20.6 ML monoblocks where I was using teflon V-caps CU very good cap and extremely expensive and things are that the Wima outperformed even that in that input amp position the audio signal goes complete/all the frequency rangepass through.

In the other side, platter mat is way critical and the best I experienced ( and I owned/own " hundred " of mats. ) still is the original Sota that after less than 100 units were out of production and the " clone " was an inferior one.
I use it with the Sota reflex clamp and with the Basis that’s reflex too. As a fact , aswith mats, I owned/own several clamps that it’s a necessity/must in any TT.

With mat/clamp and with out is like day and nigth.

R.

@cleeds  : I said we can use it and can works for a test and if we don`t like it then we can take out with no single trouble and with no sign in the arm wand that there was that electrical tape.

Why such big deal?  my command? you certainly are joking because I don't command to any one of you and certainly not cleeds that not even test it with the ASK by Sumiko.

R.

The thing about capacitors in speaker crossovers is that they generally operate without a bias voltage across them.  Thus, (1) they may take a very long time to "break in", if you believe in that sort of thing, and (2) it is not advisable to predict their sonic qualities based on their performance inside electronic equipment, where they almost always do operate with a bias voltage across them (and therefore usually break in faster as well). It is not surprising that cost may not correlate well with performance in a speaker.  Raul, where you use a capacitor at the input of your amplifier, have you tried the Russian SSG silver mylar capacitor there, assuming it is available in the needed size?  (They go up only to about 0.13uF.)  In my experience, the SSG is the single most transparent capacitor, even including the VCaps, which I also do like very much and which are made in a more useful range of values..

Dear @lewm  : about caps everything was in the long " run " time, no issue because of that.  I know exactly what you mean and I do not made the change of caps in speakers after the electronics but the other way around.

The 20.6's are coupled by cap at its input and several years ago, when I added my two Velodyne's, I took advantage of that input cap to made there the high pass filter ( along the amp input resistor. ) to the main speakers signal been untouchable by an external high pass electronic crossover.
 
In that way the signal to the main speakers and to the subwoofers goes directly from my Phonolinepreamp outputs ! !

No I don't tryed those Russian silver caps but I tryed the expensive Duelund silver ones: Wima outperformed too.

In the caps thread are wider explanations of what to do to go with Wima/Kemet caps.

R.

Dear @bukanona @stringreen  FRIENDS: 

"  As I do have this Jelco 750EB with "top cup" - I can say that if not damped it's rather inferior with high compliance cartridges (no silicon oil in cup)

With heavyweights/low compliance like SPU difference isn't so obvious, it takes time to understand that damping (silicon oil in cup) is better.

With high compliance difference is night and day. "

Very important and critical  use of the key in those statements:

"  it takes time to understand that damping (silicon oil ...) is better.  ""

Damping always will works is we give its time to settle down in our ears/brain and important our each one attitude: we have to be willing to test it with out earlier judgements.

R.

Dear @bdp24  : I found out the Cransfield patent on the tonearm/TT design that was licensed to M.Townshend. I don't read it yet.

Btw, when Max started to sale it the owners read it as manufacturer name: Cransfield and not Townshend.

R.

Dear @rauliruegas,

Thank-you for the forum references.  My choice of the word lifeless was more in haste then any proper assessment.  I found the softer rubber Technics mat to put a soft-focus on the music; the small intricate details were missing; essentially the system was now over-damped.  

Of the audio magazines - as you state, for sure Audio has/had the most technically founded (justified) papers.  

Otherwise - one more good paper http://www.laudioexperience.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Bruel-Kjaer-Audible-Effects-of-Mechanical-..., and this one is specific to measured  Audible Effects of Mechanical Resonances in Turntables and it is an interesting read.

Stay well

Dear @antinn  : Other unexisted " lifeless " I experienced was when I changed the attenuators in my dual mono Essential 3180 phonolinepreamp that original came with Elma discrete true hole resistors in a perfectly matched then I changed by same Elma Swiss attenautors but instead of tue hole discrete resistors now are SMD ones.

When I listened I really was disappointed because that " lifeless " and lower SPLs " feeling ".
Again, I was wrong, I gave to my ears/brain some time and understand it that, again, thhere was no lifeless but a lot lower distortion levels that between other things permits me to listen SPL's way higher than before with out distress or image collapse.

Latetr on I will post some really interesting information on what you posted and that I have .

@lewm  , another way important advantage and true really high improvement using the 20.6s input signal as a high pass filter was that the overall signal quality level had that improves due not only for the better input cap but the extremely way better input resistor where I used/use the Z foil naked  TX2575 with tolerance of 0.01%. Jus great and outstanding high pass filter/input signal resolution in the amps.

R.

Dear @rauliruegas,

FWIW - when I tried the Technics 3mm rubber plater mat, I stayed with it for a few months - I know it can take that long before I get over the newness factor and declare it good or otherwise. But, here is what happened - after a while I found myself listening to my digital sources more than my analog. Houston We have Problem. My analog source by design is suppose to be ’better’ than my digital source (I gave-up on investing any $$$ in digital). That’s how profound but subtle was the change. The new change in mat material (now ~4 weeks ago) has changed it back - analog is once again preferred. Like it not, the sub-conscious does have a vote. Who was it - Harry Pearson of the Absolute Sound - who said to the question - What is good sound? You will know it when you hear it.

Stay well,

Well, since the Sumiko Analog survival Kit is no longer, and Warren Ghel is no longer making the arm wrap, I will share my current secret weapon for tonearm damping wrap.....
Self-Bonding Silicone Wrap or Repair Tape,
also called” Self-amalgamating tape”
there is no adhesive, it sticks to itself...
it comes 1”x 10’,
cut to 1/2” wide and wrapped helically
(half-lapped) and carefully stretching as you go it makes a formidable compression dampening wrap by it SQUEEZING on the tonearm pipe.
It is the closest I have come to a purpose made product. You must try it if you have a troublesome arm such as a Fidelity Research FR-64fx
it is removable but not reusable..
I considered re-packaging and resale but I do not have that kind of time.
though I could use the money for sure!!
It even comes in different colors.....
i am not a wealthy man but like good sound.
good luck
thanks, Johnny

I tried some fO.q tape on my Tri-Planar arm and hated it.  I also do not use the damping trough.  My TT is an SME 20/2, which does an excellent job of isolating the plinth on its own.  I know that tonearm resonation is partially caused by the vibrations from the record groove but can't help but believe that a lot of these vibrations come through the plinth on tables that are not well isolated from room vibrations.  
Some resonance in tonearm are good.  I guess it's just a matter of how much is good and at what point do they add artifact to the sound.  The fO.q tape is a tweak that was overkill on my tonearm, but has had benefits in other areas of my system.  

@antinn I reviewed that article. It is unfortunately defective on a number of fronts. They are choosing the data that substantiate their claim instead of the other way around. A good example of this is Fig 23. They show three different situations. A tonearm set up with a resonance freq of 7 Hz, 9.5 Hz and 16 Hz, all using the same cartridge. Only the 16 Hz set up is "damped" (they do not say how). They play a 3 kHz tone through all three and show the trace. From this they are asserting that damping the arm is a good thing to do. 1st of all the 9.5 Hz has the best trace down to - 20 dB. What happens when you play a 20 Hz note? Why did they not show each set up with and without damping? This figure says absolutely nothing!

Dear @dronepunk : Thank's, great contribution that cerntainly helps to all of us.

R.

What I learned there and thank's to my self developed test evaluation process was that I not even losted SPL but what I losted and that was the " culprit " of that LIFELESS were the distortion levels that gone way lower and from the " life " came: false life because was for the higher distortion levels.

I've maintained for years that a sign of a good system is that its a lot harder to tell how loud its actually playing. The lower the distortion the more this is the case.


If you are working with any mechanical damping I would be careful to remove any electrical damping (such as the loading resistor) which might be acting as a crude 'tone control' that might color your impressions.

Dear @atmasphere  : Good that we agree about. Now: are you talking of th eamps resistor or the phonolinepreamp resistor loading?

R.

Dear @antinn  : Good, unfortunatelly the original Sota Mat disapeared.

As a fact tghe Platter mat is way more important/crucial that what we could think due that is the " talking medium " between the LP surface and the stylus tip. a GOOD MAT WILL LOWER THE RESONANCES/FEEDBACK IN BETWEEN.

R.

The 'amp's resistor' does not make a lot of sense in this conversation. However the 'cartridge loading resistor' does and that is what I meant. If it is in place prior to the application of mechanical damping, it may well be found that the damping of the resistor was compensating for the distortion (which will cause brightness) present when the arm, vinyl or turntable was not damped.


So the result would be that by doing the mechanical damping it might sound dead and lifeless. I've found that if your electrical/electronic ducks are in a row, its impossible to overdamp a platter, overdamp an LP with a platter pad (although a platter pad causes changes in tonality all on its own) or by properly damping an arm tube (which admittedly is a bit of a trick,  as this directly affects the effective mass of the arm/cartridge combination).

Dear @snackeyp  : "  I know that tonearm resonation is partially caused by the vibrations from the record groove.... but believe that a lot of these vibrations come through the plinth on tables that are not well isolated from room vibrations. "

Really?, the main " vibrations " comes from the stylus tip grooves modulations tracking and in the other side no single plynth can do nothing about speaker bass range sound " vibrations " through the air.

The tonearm arm wand tape is to damps the tonearm and the silicon paddle mainly is to damps cartridge ridding and that you " hate " it only  means that you don't like it but not that's wrong with that kind of damping because damping is a must at both positions.
What you or I like has no importance at all but what the cartridge needs.

R.

Dear @atmasphere  : In reality the resonance frequency between cartridge/tonearm is not affected because the tonearm EM change is really low because the kind of damping that we are talking about contributes all over the arm wand and not at the headshell only that's where matters more.

You can measure/calculate, here an example: EM 12grs. and with a 12cu caRTRIDGE with 8gr.-12gr. weigth you are inside 110hz and if the EM change to 15grs then it can change to  at 12grs. 9hz but at 8grs. stays 10hz.

R.

I found that adding the Sumiko Analog Survival kit meant that I had to use cartridges with a bit lower compliance. IOW while solving one problem another is created, like many things in life. A better solution is to start with a properly damped arm tube.

@atmasphere  : the dronepuck advise or even that 3m electrical tape or any other ligth tape makes almost nothing for the tonearm EM goes higher enough to be a problem.

Yes, the ideal arm wand should be very well damped but that is the ideal/perfect arm wand that does not exist and that's why we have to take some actions about.

R.

Dear friends: As I said before the silicon paddle mainly is to damps the cartridge ridding more than the tonearm it self. The " tape " is for the tonearm and inderectly benefits the cartridge transducer and its ridding through the groove modulations.

Townshend understand it very well: main subject is to helps the stylus tip ridding, this is the critical issue.

For all the information in what different gentlemans posted here we can see that the stylus tip not always is in perfect touch with the LP surface but several times is jumping and not touching the LP surface, something similar of what happens to a snow skier that due to acceleration and the snow imperfections is not always in  firm touch with the ski bottomplate..

Silicon paddle objective is try that the stylus tip stays " all " the time in touch with the LP surface along better control over the off-center LP characteristic as the macro and micro waves imperfections that disturbs a lot and creates vibrations that the transducer takes as if were groove modulations and reproduce it incrementing the distortion levels, any kind of developed distortions.
From that point of view, like it or not, the silicon paddle is a must to have, we need to help the cartridge ridding. As other gentleman posted here it improves the tracking cartridge habilities and this is a fact that I experienced several times ones and again and again.

Improving cartridge self tracking habilities means lower distortions, more true and complete signal information and improved quality level performance of what we are listening.

I have to say that's really dificult to verdamp not only the cartridge ridding but any other ling in the room/system but the room that's very easy to overdamps.
I'm not saying that we can't overdamp the cartridge/tonearm because we could when our kind of damping impedes the cartridge/tonearm " free " ridding.
Damping must be enough to the cartridge can has more control following the groove modulations, exactly what an skier is looking for during its fall in the mountain or through obstacles: control.

So one thing is to daps the tonearm and other the cartridge and we need both kind of damping down there it does not matters the way we try to do it: we need it, some way or the other.

What do you think? 

R.

@rauliruegas 3M and a few others make a butyl rubber tape that sticks to itself when you stretch it. I've not compared it to the Sumiko Analog Survival kit but it does work and does not leave a sticky mess when removed.


The Triplanar has an internal damping mechanism in its arm tube and so works well lacking any external tape for damping. In this regard it works better then the SME5 with damping while at the same time having lower mass.


BTW I think you mean 'riding' when you are using 'ridding'. Riding is used like 'riding your bicycle', 'ridding' is used like 'getting rid of garbage'.

Yes, that's what I'm trying to say. Sorry.

R.

@rauliruegas,

I have both the VPI 10.5i/AL-tube (EL = 266mm) and the 12-3D /printed-tube (EL-313mm). By just a simple balance analysis, the 12-3D tonearm fwd of the pivot is 3X the weight (not effective mass) of the 10.5i tonearm fwd of its pivot. The 12-3D is over-damped and it plays fine and is generally well regarded, but the counterweight I have is a total of about 215-gms. So, at least by observation - I have to agree that you cannot over-damp the tonearm. I would venture to guess that so long as you can balance the tonearm, and the requisite bearing design will not impede motion, that over-damping similar to the 12-3D printed arm pretty much eliminates any sharply defined resonant frequency.

But, the fO.q tape is a piezo-electric damping tape that converts vibration into electricity - and the vendor states not to use on sensitive electrical components. I would think the very minute electrical signal carried by the tonearm wires would make use of the fO.q tape inappropriate for a tonearm.  Also, from military application experience,  there is a science to damping a tube with externally applied damping material. 

Otherwise, for tracking a lot has to be associated with the tonearm length/bearing design - single-pivot, gimble, knife edge, magnetic and all variations thereof. Add to this the cartridge stylus-shape, and cantilever/suspension ’system’ and the benefit of silicone damping has to be variable. There are just too many variables.

Neil

@rauliruegas  So, what is your assessment of resin infused wooden arm tubes such a Reed and Schroder use? 

Dear @antinn  : Yes, to many variables to be really precise but in any case damping is welcomed.

I tested silicon oil in diferent viscosity grades from 10K to 1,000K cst and I can tell you that only the 1,000K cst is really an obstacle for cartridge/tonearm tracking.
 We have to test the viscosity grade according the tonearm/cartridge combination and we have to have a tracking test evaluation proccess to be able to make comparisons about.

It's way interesting these kind of tests evaluation. Common sense tell me damping is need it, level of damping is what each one of us have to determine/decide. 
Unfortunatelly audio analog is not really a science and do not exist inviolable rules.

R.

Here are some recommendations on viscosity for tonearm dampening, came upon this site when i was trying to find a supplier of Townshend "trough fuel" that i have been using for years.
http://www.turntablebasics.com/silicone.html

Dear @kps25sc : Thank's for the link. What is the Townshend advise about?

Mainly I use the silicon paddle to damp the cartridge tracking and found out that 100K cst is not " enough " so I gone to 300K cst and works fine with out " any " obstruction ( I can detect. ) to the tonearm movements but each one of us have to test to decide which viscosity level need.

As @antinn  said: to many variables.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

I think Raul raised an interesting issue with airborne vibration. Even if a turntable and arm are isolated mechanically from whatever they are sitting on sound waves in air will tend to vibrate them exciting whatever resonances remain. There are many tonearms now with superbly damped arm wands. I think the best have permanent head shells with the exception of Kuzma. The main resonance that remains is the one that should be around 10 Hz. There is not much in music down there and a properly suspended turntable should be isolated down to 2-3 Hz. Anything above that will not get to the cartridge and arm by mechanical means. A well damped tonearm should not pass on any vibration in the audio band. So, in this situation a damping paddle in silicone can only affect the one resonance point. In the ideal situation there is nothing else to damp. It would seem to me then that if using a voluntary damping mechanism makes an improvement in the sound then either the turntable and/or tonearm are not correctly isolated or internally damped and there are now other resonance points in play. In which case isolating the turntable and tonearm from airborne sound waves might also make an improvement. But, if there is only the one resonance point, 10 Hz where not much happens nothing will improve the performance of the system other than perhaps changing the cartridge. A fixed turntable also has to contend with vibration passed on mechanically. A good example of this is the foot fall problem. Just because a turntable is on a granite slab does not protect it from all mechanical vibration and does nothing for airborne sound waves. I had some correspondence with Mark Doehmann creator of the Helix turntable. He is working on a dust cover system for the Helix that will isolate it from airborne sound waves. It is the final frontier for him.
Right now it is so heavy he will be using gas shocks to lift and counter balance it. 

rauliruegas
Townshend sell a 10 ml bottle without specifying the viscosity.

Townsend sells I think it was 4 different viscosities from 10,000 cst to 600,000 cst. The 600,000 is for unipivot arms. Using that in a damping trough will rip your cantilever off:)

The one they call "trough fuel" i have been using, probably has a good viscosity for Townshend type trough ! I ordered larger bottles with viscosity 10,000,100,000 and 300 000 cst from a different vendor. A little experimentation will be interesting.

Dear @kps25sc : "  A little experimentation will be interesting. "

Absolutely and a must to do it.

Btw, @bdp24  , have you any idea of the viscosity in the silicon that you are using in the Townshend?

R.

Unfortunatelly audio analog is not really a science and do not exist inviolable rules.

I don't find this to be true, nor do I worry about being a minority in this regard. There's a lot of 'by gosh and by golly' in this hobby.

"by gosh and by golly." Atmasphere that is so polite. Analog audio would not be here if it was not for science and the work of some very brilliant people. The only thing that does not bow to scientific rules as we know them is the electrical current running around inside our heads.

Dear friends : All those changes that I posted and that I did it throufgh the years, including the silicon cartridge damping, not only gave me a better quality level systemperformance but in each case the room/system noise floor gone down too. 

Now, the silicon cartridge damping is not only to try to mantain all the time it can/permits the tracking cartridge job that the stylus tip stays in touch with the grooves always but that the suddenly changes in VTF and VTA/SRA due to LP surface macro and micro waves it can happens in more gentle way.

Additional to all those the silicon cartridge damping permits too that the anti-skate need it, normally, goes lower too.

So to many advatnges down there. A must to do it no matters whaT.

rEGARDS AND ENJOY THE music not distortions, 
r.

Éssential- versus conditional approach. The first mentioned is based
on Aristoteles who discriminted between ''essential'' and ''accidental''
properties of objects. It is similar to induction by which one ''deduce''
from one quality to all others. The other approach is by Tarski :
''truth by satisfaction of predictes'':  ''x satisfy conditions a,b, c..,n''
and if not the the statement is not true.
As Raul think that damping is essential property of tonearms so
does chakster about styli. 
The so called ''holistic'' approach is ''obviously'' conditional. Like,say,
 Lew and Dover.

Nandric, assumptions are the mother of all F--k Ups

Raul, there is one variable in your assessment that has to give us all pause and that is what you "heard." Forgetting about psychoacoustics, How do we know what condition your hearing is in. Maybe you are an old person who is already rolling off at 8 kHz, presbycusis. Most old people do not even notice this!  Maybe you are on Lithium and have had your cochlea destroyed along with your kidneys and thyroid gland. You could even be myxedematous! 
Consequently, if your argument is based on "what you heard." It becomes almost (but not quite) totally invalid. Next time you do the damping experiment have a panel of friends present and get group consent. This is improve the validity of the argument a little but do keep them off the peyote:) By the way, this is true for ALL of us.    

Dear friends: At the end the damping issue is to improve what we are listening and one way or the other in the analog alternative a must to have specially at TT mat/clamp, tonearm and cartridge.

Any tonearm including the SAT will improve its quality performance with that arm wand tape that the only " what? but " it has is that " change " the clean tonearm look.

Now, the tonearms that by design come with a silicon paddle/trough its real benefits is for the cartridge that always its improves its tracking habilities as some gentlemans posted here.

Improved cartridge tracking habilities means lower distortion levels and that the cartridge pick-up more recorded signal ( MUSIC. ) than with out that silicon kind of damping and through this thread were posted critical and important facts/information that confirms the needs to damps tonearm/cartridge combinations.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.



 

Nandric: great contribution what you posted that helps a lot to all audiophiles and music lovers. Good ! ! Please follows in that way, it's what Agon needs. Congratulations.

R.

mijostyn , what you call ''asumptions'' is the same as ''assertions''.
We all think in the same way: we start with some assertion as
premise which we think is true and deduce from this assertion
our conclusions. But first logical rule is: ''if the assertions (premise)
is no true than the deductions alo can't be true''. 
For a long time there was no difference between ''auctoritas'' and
''veritas''. That is why Aristoteles dominated western education
for 2000 years. Till Galileo proved his ''physics'' wrong and Frege
his logic and methodology.  So the mentioned  confusion is the
result of bad education. 

Right nandric, I am not as graceful with the english language as thee but lets see if I can give it a go. Every theory starts with an assumption (two s's.) If I do "X", I will get a certain result "Y". In order to move that theory to scientific fact you have to do an experiment with "repeatable" results that show X indeed leads to Y. Galileo did this. Aristotle belongs in a different subject. Asserting ideas you can not prove to influence others is the reason we have so much mythology in this hobby. "That sounds like it will work" is much different than "This works." It seems the two are always confused. I see no consistent data that proves tonearm damping improves tracking in all circumstances which is what is being assumed and asserted. Certainly in the case of a very compliant cartridge in a heavy arm it might. Otherwise there is no good explanation that it should and no proof that it does otherwise some very brilliant tonearm designers would add it to their best arms. SAT, Reed and Schroder are some examples and there are many more. Reed and Schroder give you instead the option to change the effective mass of the arm, a better approach IMHO. Raul makes assertions based on what he hears. Unfortunately, and we should all know this, hearing is not a repeatable experiment.

My spelling and grammar are the result of a bad education. When this was being taught I was thinking about flying rockets through the neighbor's windows and being a WW2 fighter ace. Spelling and grammar
held no interest to me and my teachers were incapable of making it so. Nobody (except the neighbors) realized I had a brain until I waltzed away from my peers in math. Today they would label me as having a progressive developmental disorder. 

@rauliruegas, et.al, 

Per your request from PM, attached is the link to the Audio March 1981 magazine with the article on VTA/SRA and the effects of both.  https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Audio/80s/Audio-1981-03.pdf.  While the results are now widely accepted that Shibata and similar contact line shapes are very sensitive to SRA, this other article pivot vs tangential in Audio magazine June 1982 https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Audio/80s/Audio-1982-06.pdf highlights an associated problem.  The tonearm resonance can cause large changes in VTF which then alters SRA. The Audio 1982 article addresses  "There are two practical ways to stabilize the cantilever deflection'  One is tonearm damping, the other is to reduce the effective mass of the tonearm/cartridge system to change the resonant frequency.  We are now some 40 yrs past when these articles were written, and better materials and manufacturing processes offer a wider range of solutions, but the root of the problem(s) are the same (thankfully, it does not appear that we have created any new one; at least not yet).  Also note that static on the record can also change/increase the VTF, and could cause similar distortion.  

antinn, thanx for the articles. Article #2 is really great and I think important for any turntable jockey to read. It demonstrates the effects of varying tonearm effective mass brilliantly. It argues that if radial trackers sound better it is only because they are lighter (they are talking about servo driven units.)  It also makes a sound argument as to why a shorter arm is better than a longer one. And why a pivoted arm should sound better than a radial tracker with a very high horizontal mass. The graphs of this are very provocative.