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

Raul, you may be right, and it is hardly for me to argue. But if my one, poor, remaining ear cannot hear the difference, what then?

I shall note that SME do not include any damping trough on most of their tonearms: it is standard only on the V (but is offered as an add-on for some of their other models). I have a good deal of respect for Alastair Robertson-Aikman's engineering decisions.

Might it be that you are referring to some more esoteric effects of damping rather than obvious mistracking?—when I got into Decca cartridges it was received wisdom that they would probably mistrack in an obvious way without a damped tonearm. My experience has been otherwise, but I don't have any of the classic Decca cartridges before John Wright modified them into something more refined and capable. And if we are to consider more subtle things than obvious mistracking, what of the supposed loss of dynamics that goes along with use of the damping trough? It is the (I'd say unrivalled) dynamics of Decca cartridges that makes us love them, and to dampen them down might remove their character.

Dear @dogberry  : Yes, I owned the V and IV  and its add-on tray. 

No, the intrinsical character do not changes but improves. Now I think that could be more easy for any one of us to detect that analog jitter not with LP tracks recorded at high velocities but more easy in a " normal " recordings. 

For years I developed my overall test proccess where I usem almost everykind of LP tracks and always the same.

As I told you, it's not easy to fall in count what to look for, we need patience and no we don't need " golden ears " to do it.

R.

it's not easy to fall in count what to look for

Can you rephrase that bit, please? I don't understand what you mean.

@dogberry  : What I try to say is that we need that to amke comparisons with and with   out silicon damping we need that the in the tonearm tray came facilities to do it because if each time you need to remove the silicon oil to test with out and have to fill each time you need to test with silicon damping then maybe not a good idea because the test with and with out we need to do it " almost " in the fly ( not in the fly really ) very fast in the same track.

I can't remember how came in the SME but in my today tonearms and in the MS MAX you can do that and is easy to listen with and with out.

R.

Understood. Thanks.