Graham tonearm tweaking

Sorry! I forgot to mention a key point,that will let you know you are really close to optimum, in set up.That is the way "Acoustic Bass" (double bass instruments)should sound when you have gotten into the "ZONE".I was content with a close approximation of what I thought was fine until I brought some of my discs to my friend,who owns the Air bearing arm.He happens to be a firm believer in NO damping.He chose the Air Tangent for this reason.
What I heard(this was the main reason I started to play around,in the first place)was "Real" visceral impact from "Very Lightly Plucked Notes" on side #2 of the EMI recording of Ida Haendal performing Sibelius violin music.There are some beautiful interwoven lines of music on three tracks,after the Violin Cto. has ended.These consist of softly plucked double bass that I was not coming close to getting.

I told my friend of my frustration and since he is the opposite of almost all Ego Driven Magazine types I've met(he did write the Mercury column in TAS) he suggested,actually demanded he come over to my place and listen.Since he does not own my stuff all he said when leaving was," the performance I was looking for was potentially there,but it was up to me to learn how to get to it".This guy NEVER tells anyone to "go buy new stuff" and he is the most critical listener I know.He also knows how these damn records should sound since he has the first pressing of almost anything.Classical or Jazz,with some cute different stuff thrown in.He's my YODA!

Getting back to the double bass issue.Even at low level,as opposed to low volume,once you have the fluid level "Right" you will hear a real sense of "SNAP".That is the only way I can describe it.When fingers are plucking, it will sound slightly "Muddled" if there is too much fluid.When you have reached the correct point there will be a sense of a bit more depth to the bass,and more ambience to the space where the event was recorded.This is when you crack open the bottle of "GOOD STUFF".You're done!

Only because I felt I had good equipment,and could get more from it(after hearing a superior set-up)was I willing to get this OBSESSED with this detail.I'm sure my tennis pals would never understand why I was putting in this kind of time on a dumb tweak,when I should be practicing my serve.

Only because I had a really great friend with a superior set-up(and was open minded enough to admit it to myself)and he knows the sound of what is on these discs, for what they should sound like,and honestly told me to save my money(when I was unhappy)and keep trying,did I decide to get "ADMITTEDLY, OVER THE TOP OBSESSED" that I'm sure you all must think I am.But,I did learn something.I'm never going to take anything this far again.My arms hurt from holding that bearing so still,and my eyes ache from watching out, to make sure the fluid doesn't leak into the outer assembly.

If I had not done all this I probably would have found a way to ratioalize my sound.At least I know for sure I'd have had a much better serve!

sirspeedy and Doug, Thanks for the details in your procedures. I now see that both methods are variations on the same theme and pointing in the same direction.

sirspeedy, I very much enjoyed the Mercury man parable. My friend told me years ago when I was going to a highend store, "If you want to save a lot of money and a lot of time, don't listen to the good stuff." And thanks for the paragraphs!
George

sirspeedy,

Did you ever get your Graham to the point of the same level of lack of grain that your friends Air Tangent has?

Regards,

Scott

I (and others I suspect) would be interested as to just how sirspeedy makes those micro changes in the damping fluid level. The blue goop is messy stuff in my hands!

Type anyway you like. Your info is worth parsing.

TIA

First, many thanks to sirspeedy for the typing upgrade. 15 paragraphs in two posts, wow! Seriously, your always valuable content is much easier to read. Go ahead, blush!

Remote control VTA, wouldn't that be nifty? It really doesn't take much time on a TriPlanar or JMW though. Once you know the right setting for a record you can dial it in while the TT is spinning up. Real time loss is virtually zero. It's not so good on a Graham 2.2 because the arm height adjustment lacks adequate resolution.

Back to topic. It's not surprising that damping acts differently on a Graham vs. your friend's AirTangent (or my TriPlanar). Their damping devices are so different mechanically that you wouldn't expect similar sonic effects.

I'm not surprised your AirTangent friend prefers no damping. We don't use it on the TriPlanar either. The damping troughs on these arms are well away from the pivot point, which means the greatest effect of damping is to present resistance to lateral arm movement in response to cantilever deflections. This resistance must feed back to the cartridge and affect the way the cantilever acts in the suspension. The sonic effects seem detrimental IME and apparently in your friend's also.

OTOH, the damping on a Graham 2.2, Basis Vector and other unipivots is concentrated at the pivot point. Depending on the size of the bearing surfaces, it has a negligible effect on lateral arm motion. What it does is dampen arm and bearing resonances at certain frequencies. The damping on an AirTangent or TriPlanar does not dampen resonances very much because the fluid is not in contact with the arm very much, nor with the bearing at all.

With an Airy 3 on Cello's Graham 2.2, a little too much damping started to kill the HF's. Backing it off by even a pinhead made the highs zippy and immediately killed some of the bass. We could not find a happy medium with that combination in his (strongly dynamic) system (in a bright room).

With an Airy 2 the sweet zone for damping was sufficiently broad that we had room to tune it, a pinhead or two this way or that, without feeling like we were giving up anything. We achieved full dynamics with no loss of HF control, full bass without bloat. This was a happier setup, again possibly due the overall characteristics of his system and room.