I fitted the kit today and had a few hours to listen.
As I said before, the parts are very well made and fit to perfection, there was a lot of thought put into the design. This is not some paper clip into an empty tuna can damper, it matches the table perfectly and looks like it was designed by Pro-Ject to be a part of all 9cc tonearms. One minor "problem" was that I am using the 80g counterweight (8g-11g carts) with a 10.5g cart and the clamp forced me to move it back to balance out the arm. It works, and the counterweight is fairly secure but not as secure as before though. I may add some weight to it or may go ahead and order the 95g counterweight, they're relatively inexpensive. Didn't seem to affect the sound.
I put in the "goo" and gave it some time to settle down. I thought by looking at the syringe that it might only be good for one "fill-up" but turns out it should be good for several. I adjusted the screw until it just touched the silicone and gave it a listen, it sounded very good and I was confident that it sounded better than before. Adjusted the screw a half turn it and gave it another listen. Better than the with the screw just touching imo, more lowbass to midbass detail, instruments stood out more and sounstaging seemed better. There may have been the slightest reduction in high frequency info but it was tough to tell, it was extremely minute. Adjusted the screw one full turn and it still sounded very good, but I could definitely hear a small loss of high frequency detail.
I settled on the screw half a turn in, mind you this was after several back to back comparisions in all positions to decide what I liked best. I put on side two of Eric Clapton "unplugged" and gave it a listen. This is the 2LP Warner release and although it was digitally recorded it stands with the very best of my analog recordings. It sounded great but it sounded great before I fitted the clamp (several days before), never the less I thought it sounded "more" great. I next backed the screw out one full turn to get it fully out of the silicone and played the same side. What happened??? I've always thought that you can hear what you've lost much more clearly than what you've gained, and here was the proof. Everything sounded pulled back as if the soundstage had shrunk to a shadow of what it was. The piano, which was perfectly delineated and prominent had pulled back and sounded lower in volume, now just a background instrument by comparision. The superb detail of the lower bass to midbass was gone. Everything just sounded smaller and less involving than before.
I went back to the screw just touching and listened again. Much much better, 95% of the goodness was back. Turned the screw a half turn in and it was even better. Oddly, the biggest difference was heard in the last track, I can't say the cartridge was tracking better because it always tracked superbly before but that's the only thing that really makes sense. The background seems much "blacker" than before but I'm not sure if it was a reduction in the noise floor or if it was the soundstaging, which brought everything to the fore. I put in another album that has a "pinch warp" which caused my cartridge to visibly jump up and down quickly (but never leaving the record) and I would always get some extreme woofer movement from my midbass driver (very easy to see as it is Kevlar) when turned up in volume. Much less now and I felt I could turn the volume up without worrying about damaging the speakers. This is proof that the damper is attenuating resonance. Actually this entire test is proof that resonance from the subsonic region well up into the lower treble is being attenuated and "cleaned up."
Was this as big a step as going from the supplied Blue Point No. 2 to the Ortofon Rondo Blue? No. Was it as big a step as going from a Pro-Ject Phono Box SE II to an Avid Pulsus? No. Those differences were obvious the second they were installed, the damper took a back to back listen to clearly show exactly what had changed. I feel now that the damper is showing what the cartridge and phono stage are fully capable of, much more so than the stock 9cc arm. Well worth the the $175 price and if I knew what it was going to do beforehand I would have payed more.
As with everything, your experience may vary, but if you are running a very good cartridge and a great phono stage through a revealing system you should come up with the same results as I did. I always considered the 9cc to be a very good arm but with some reservations (poor resonance control). With the damper I now consider it a superb arm. Maybe not an SME V (or better) but likely not that far off. Yes, I just said that.
