bobins08
Celebrating Life
I recently did a major overall haul and upgrade of my Thorens TD 160 which is documented here: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=586639 .
This included all of the commonly performed damping mods, a Soundsupport arm board for my SME 3009 tone arm, RCA conversion of the SME 3009 connector, new Emotiva X-series phono cables, a platter bearing thrust plate, an OEM belt from Qaudio (finally got 33.33 to actually equal 33.33), and a whole lot of adjusting and tweaking. During this work I installed the SME FD 200 fluid damper tank (also called a trough), but not the damping paddles or the fluid. I wanted to hear the sound of my table with all the above stated work and then hear the affects of the damping kit. The results of the upgrades have been splendid. I spent several weeks growing accustom to the sound of my “new” turntable and then decided to put the fluid damping into use.
I have attached five pictures showing the damper installation.
Picture 1 shows the vial of SME fluid which is specified to be a 200,000 cs viscosity silicone fluid (which is really thick stuff). You can see the medium size grey which is recommended for compliances above 20 cu.
Picture 2 shows the paddle in the collar with the convex side out. The screw will hold it all together on the tone arm.
Picture 3 shows the paddle and collar screwed loosely around the tone arm and ready to be fit into the trough. Sorry for the poor photo.
Picture 4 shows the alignment of the paddle inside the trough. I played a record end to end to verify no interference but really all you need to do is check the lead in groove, the middle, and the end.
Picture 5 shows the set up to drain the fluid from the vial into the trough. I cut the bottom of the vial, taped the vial into place on the trough, unscrewed the cap on the vial, and went to bed for the night. In the morning the vial was empty and the fluid was evenly distributed in the trough.
The sound was significantly improved right from the start. The bass was much more defined and firm. The midrange is greatly improved. The music is much livelier and has a greater 3D effect. I am finding many records in my collection that I thought sounded kind of flat now sound much better. The fluid damper has a greater effect on the sound than all of the other changes I made combined.
I spent several days listening and adjusting. I found the need to slowly remove small amounts of fluid from the trough. While the sound was better than ever I had some trouble tracking records that had small humps and warps. This surprised me because I was able to track these records with no problem before the fluid damper was present. It seems like too much fluid slows the arm down am hurts the tracking. I experimented with anti-skate and continued to remove fluid until the system was optimized. Many thanks go to Steve (aka Ilikevinyl) for his advice and support.
I ended up with fluid level that covers about 75 to 80% of the paddle and the anti skate setting still is a bit of a mystery. Before the fluid damper I was happy with it at 0.5 (consistent for most people using a V15-III w/ Jico SAS). I am currently setting it to 0.25 but not really sure it is needed at all. It seems to be fine with no anti skate at all.
Operation and feel of the tone arm with the fluid in place is different. Movement of the tone arm has a heavier feel, it is best to move the arm slowly. I do not need the cueing lever to start a record, the arm drops in a damped manner due to the paddle being in the fluid.
In summary the FD-200 kit is a fantastic upgrade to the SME 3009 tone arm. It makes it sound much better. They are getting rare and expensive and I recommend them without reservation.
To those of you that have one I would love to hear your findings. What fluid do you use? How much fluid? What anti skate setting works for you? Etc.
Cheers, Bob
This included all of the commonly performed damping mods, a Soundsupport arm board for my SME 3009 tone arm, RCA conversion of the SME 3009 connector, new Emotiva X-series phono cables, a platter bearing thrust plate, an OEM belt from Qaudio (finally got 33.33 to actually equal 33.33), and a whole lot of adjusting and tweaking. During this work I installed the SME FD 200 fluid damper tank (also called a trough), but not the damping paddles or the fluid. I wanted to hear the sound of my table with all the above stated work and then hear the affects of the damping kit. The results of the upgrades have been splendid. I spent several weeks growing accustom to the sound of my “new” turntable and then decided to put the fluid damping into use.
I have attached five pictures showing the damper installation.
Picture 1 shows the vial of SME fluid which is specified to be a 200,000 cs viscosity silicone fluid (which is really thick stuff). You can see the medium size grey which is recommended for compliances above 20 cu.
Picture 2 shows the paddle in the collar with the convex side out. The screw will hold it all together on the tone arm.
Picture 3 shows the paddle and collar screwed loosely around the tone arm and ready to be fit into the trough. Sorry for the poor photo.
Picture 4 shows the alignment of the paddle inside the trough. I played a record end to end to verify no interference but really all you need to do is check the lead in groove, the middle, and the end.
Picture 5 shows the set up to drain the fluid from the vial into the trough. I cut the bottom of the vial, taped the vial into place on the trough, unscrewed the cap on the vial, and went to bed for the night. In the morning the vial was empty and the fluid was evenly distributed in the trough.
The sound was significantly improved right from the start. The bass was much more defined and firm. The midrange is greatly improved. The music is much livelier and has a greater 3D effect. I am finding many records in my collection that I thought sounded kind of flat now sound much better. The fluid damper has a greater effect on the sound than all of the other changes I made combined.
I spent several days listening and adjusting. I found the need to slowly remove small amounts of fluid from the trough. While the sound was better than ever I had some trouble tracking records that had small humps and warps. This surprised me because I was able to track these records with no problem before the fluid damper was present. It seems like too much fluid slows the arm down am hurts the tracking. I experimented with anti-skate and continued to remove fluid until the system was optimized. Many thanks go to Steve (aka Ilikevinyl) for his advice and support.
I ended up with fluid level that covers about 75 to 80% of the paddle and the anti skate setting still is a bit of a mystery. Before the fluid damper I was happy with it at 0.5 (consistent for most people using a V15-III w/ Jico SAS). I am currently setting it to 0.25 but not really sure it is needed at all. It seems to be fine with no anti skate at all.
Operation and feel of the tone arm with the fluid in place is different. Movement of the tone arm has a heavier feel, it is best to move the arm slowly. I do not need the cueing lever to start a record, the arm drops in a damped manner due to the paddle being in the fluid.
In summary the FD-200 kit is a fantastic upgrade to the SME 3009 tone arm. It makes it sound much better. They are getting rare and expensive and I recommend them without reservation.
To those of you that have one I would love to hear your findings. What fluid do you use? How much fluid? What anti skate setting works for you? Etc.
Cheers, Bob
