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Foil damping tape as a tonearm tube wrap?

There has been a couple sporadic posts recently about using a product called 3M foil damping tape to wrap tonearm tubes. The tape is normally used in applications to reduce unwanted vibrations in the product to which the tape is attached. In the particular tonearm wrap applications, users claim a noticeable improvement in sonic qualities of vinyl playback. I created this thread to catalog impressions of others who have used this material, their particular tonearm wrap applications and their take away stories. Who has used this product for tonearm wraps? Thoughts?
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Showing 3 responses by bdp24

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bdp24
4,908 posts
 
Michael Percy (Audio) sells an EAR product named TAD Damping Foil. It's a composite damping sheet comprised of a viscoelastic pressure sensitive adhesive constrained by an aluminum foil layer, 0.005" thick. It's very light and flexible, perfect for damping tone arm tubes. Cheap too, $3.50 for a 9" x 12" sheet. Percy has a $25.00 minimum order requirement, but he has lots of other cool stuff, including other EAR damping products. 
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 
Geoff’s dislike of EAR damping products reminded me that he also dislikes lead, and that rolls of lead tape are also available. A roll of 3/4" cost less than $10, for those wishing to give it a try. However, lead is relatively heavy (in relation to EAR foil), and will substantially increase the effective moving mass of any tone arm whose tube it is wrapped around. Perhaps just one layer at the back end of the tube, right in front of the bearing housing?
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 

The rational for constrained layer damping is that the product absorbs vibration and converts it to heat---not reflecting the mechanical energy back to it’s source, but instead dissipating it. That’s the theory, anyway. I really doubt damping tape can prevent an arm tube from vibrating! It CAN absorb vibration though, and is in fact designed and intended to do just that.

EAR damping products are widely used in commercial applications, to reduce the level of noise produced by large machines in manufacturing plants. In music systems, constrained layer damping (used in some of the world’s best loudspeakers, and in some isolation platforms, such as those made by Symposium Acoustics) can be used not only on tone arms, but also the metal chassis’ of electronics, many of which ring like a bell. That doesn’t necessarily mean the sound of those electronics will be improved, but it’s cheap to give it a try and find out.

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