Damping fluid-Where does it go????
 

I purchased a VPI classic 1 for a Christmas gift (to me) and am very happy with it. BUT for the life of me I can find zero info in the installation guide on where to put the tonearm damping fluid. Would someone please help and tell me where on the tonearm it goes.
Thanks Ed

Ed,
I have an older JMW arm. It is on my VPI TNT table.
The damping fluid for the JMW tonearms goes in the well around the pivot.

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/...psacc84a58.png

Observe the recommendations in the manual regarding how much to fill the well. This will prevent the well from overflowing, and preventing damping fluid from getting on the arm and table.

Thank you very much for the info.
Ed

What does that damping fluid do, sonically, anyway?

Nothing really, it damps the tone arm lowering speed.

I usually listen to the arm with and without the fluid before deciding if damping fluid will be used or not. Damping fluid is intended to make the arm more stable. If to much damping fluid is used the sound tends to sound slow to my ears.

Ivan, it has nothing to do with the lowering speed of the tonearm, rather the 'dampening' of the arm itself during playback. Something to experiment with if you so desire, momentum adj for over active tonearms if you will.

generally speaking when one adds fluid it will 'slow' the arm down(sonically, for whatever that means) so told to me by Mike @ VPI

Good thread; there is a fair amount of controversy about what it does, and how it affects the final sound if at all.

"If the cartridge drops too quickly when you lower the cueing lever, then the original silicone fluid has leaked out.
Applying a tiny amount of this thick silicone fluid to the cylinder wall of your cueing mechanism will restore a smooth, quiet transition into playback when dropping the cueing lever."

"Some audiophiles prefer not to use tonearm damping at all, even when the arm has provision for it, arguing that the sound is "better" without it. You may agree with them (I certainly don't), but if you do, you should understand that damping acts mainly to suppress the low-frequency arm/cartridge system resonance, and that an undamped arm's "richer, warmer" sound is a coloration, whether you consider it euphonic or not. A tonearm will always provide more accurate and stable disc reproduction with damping than without it. It may, in fact, make the difference between groove-skipping on some discs and unflappable tracking of every disc you own."