A damping assembly for the actuator of high performance disk drive assembly is formed from multiple materials. The damping assembly is added to the actuator to dampen vibration that occurs during operation of the drive. The damping assembly is connected to an exterior portion of a coil region of the actuator. The damping assembly helps dampen vibration modes for coil torsion and coil bending, thereby improving dynamics settling performance to improve overall file input/output throughput performance. This also allows for a higher voice coil motor torque constant by increasing the magnet radius, thereby also improving move time, which further improves file input/output throughput performance. The overall file performance is improved by reducing settling times associated with coil torsion and coil bending modes, and allowing a higher torque constant to also improve move time. Both of these effects contribute to improving file performance.