[Mister Pig]

Probably not if you appreciate large breast-eses!

But this is an audio topic. I have a friend of mine who is letting go of one of the basic Well Tempered arms. This is the standard one with metal arm tube, but it has been cryro treated.

Thinking of trying it out on the newly acquired Townshend Rock. Curious to know if silicone dampening at the trough and the arm is going to be too great. I know the proof is in the putting....but its an interesting mental exercise at the least.

One thing I wonder about the WT arm is if tracking error is as great as a traditional pivoted arm. Once the cartridge moves off a null point, what would stop the back of the arm from shifting in the silicone bath and remain at an optimum tracking point? Possibly my understanding of offset tracking error is wrong, or at least I am not looking at the big picture regarding tracking error.

Actually several years ago I owned a Well Tempered Record Player, and found it to be a nice table. I eventually replaced it with a Teres/ET II combo, which was the best table I had owned.

Combining these two different silicone technologies sounds like it would be an interesting experiment. Just wondering if there are any practical issues that make this project a non-starter. Opinions/Observations?

Regards
Mister Pig

[BobM]

The Well Tempered is a rather unique design, relying on the silicone bath to provide dampening and support and a pivot point of the "bearing" on the arm. It is rather critical to the design. If he was worried about overdamping this arm then he should have, as an engineer, built in some live ane liveliness in another manner. I haven't heard the new table and arm, but I have heard the old one and it is certainly not lacking in excitement.

But too much silicone dampening of other arms, where it is not a critical component to the support of the arm, can certainly cause an overdamped and unexciting presentation. Use silicon with caution and be prepared to pull it out again if you lose that energy that makes music come alive.

Enjoy,
Bob

[macrojack]

I used a WT Reference Table for 12 years. The arm is universally adjustable if you are the kind of guy who builds ships in bottles. It is a little finicky if sustained optimization is your goal. The arm damping can be adjusted by adding or removing silicone from the damping bath. There is probably no arm that is more gentle on your records and I am aware of no table that is more quiet.

[Mister Pig]

I used a WT Reference Table for 12 years. The arm is universally adjustable if you are the kind of guy who builds ships in bottles. It is a little finicky if sustained optimization is your goal. The arm damping can be adjusted by adding or removing silicone from the damping bath. There is probably no arm that is more gentle on your records and I am aware of no table that is more quiet.

But here is the rub. The turntable uses a silicone trough that swings out over the record. There is a paddle that attaches to the head shell and sits in the trough, allowing for dampening at the cartridge/tonearm point. The question is will this amount of dampening be too great for a standard WT arm.

Regards
Mister Pig

[macrojack]

I would guess so. The WT arm is extremely low mass and the damping at the back end is so effective that you can just drop the arm and watch it slowly float to the record surface without cueing mechanism.

You should probably decide to damp one end or the other, not both.

[doug s.]

i'd stick w/the well-tempered's damping & ditch the cartridge-end damping trough, if for no other reason then it precludes using a record clamp...

doug s.

[Mister Pig]

i'd stick w/the well-tempered's damping & ditch the cartridge-end damping trough, if for no other reason then it precludes using a record clamp...

doug s.

Sorry thats not true. The Rock uses a factory record clamp....maybe not a monster like a Sota Reflex clamp, but it looks to get the job done. Looks similar to the one my Teres came with actually.

Regards
Mister Pig

But yes, given the way the WT arm is set up for cueing and how the anti skate is related to the silicone bath....it seems that the trough would mess things up.  I could always do like the real cool analog guys and build a pod to hold the WT arm, then have two of them on the table. But for what reason I really couldn't say...don't play mono or 78's. But it would still be cool

[doug s.]

i'd stick w/the well-tempered's damping & ditch the cartridge-end damping trough, if for no other reason then it precludes using a record clamp...

doug s.

Sorry thats not true. The Rock uses a factory record clamp....maybe not a monster like a Sota Reflex clamp, but it looks to get the job done. Looks similar to the one my Teres came with actually.

Regards
Mister Pig

hey, that's cool.  from the pic, it looked difficult, if not impossible to get a clamp on it...

doug s.