OK, here is a thought: everytime I touch, poke or tap the tonearm I can hear it from my speakers.
Makes sense - the cart acts similiar to a microphone and the vibrations get transmitted through the connection between the headshell and the cart causing the audible feedback. Te screws holding the cart are tight and the connection is solid allowing this to happen.

But is it a good thing? Shouldn't the arm be just a mechanical suspension for the cart and stylus, without any acoustic properties, so to speak?

So going against the common wisdom that requires as "tight" and uniform of a connection between the stylus/cart/headshell/tonearm as possible I thought the following: wouldn't separating the cartridge from the headshell using some damping material such as putty, cork, rubbery foam etc. improve things by preventing the arm from sending its own audio information to the stylus?

In fact I remember seing such device that looked like a tiny piece of some sort of thin foam layer being sold on Audiogon for some $150...

Doesn't seem to difficult to make one at home... and it shouldn't cost more that a couple of cents... but how come I don't know of anyone doing this?
Kris

I have seen some rediculously expensive isolation things on one of those 'high-end' sites.
The fact is, a cartridge must be tight against its mounts.
You can apply damping material to and between the arm components themselves, but common sense, plus the collective experiences of most audiofools, says that isolating the cartridge from the arm is the opposite of what is considered proper in audioland.

Seth
Forever Analog

I have a well tempered arm that is filled with sand.

I have heard of people putting heat shrink over a metal tonearm tube and that doing a great job of damping the arm. People even reccomend it for my well tempered one.

Would be a fun and cheap thing to try.

Evan