Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners



Where are you? What mods have you done ?

I have been using these ET2's for over 9 years now.
I am still figuring them out and learning from them. They can be modified in so many ways. Bruce Thigpen laid down the GENIUS behind this tonearm over 20 years ago. Some of you have owned them for over 20 years !

Tell us your secrets.

New owners – what questions do you have ?

We may even be able to coax Bruce to post here. :^)

There are so many modifications that can be done.

Dressing of the wire with this arm is critical to get optimum sonics along with proper counterweight setup.

Let me start it off.

Please tell us what you have found to be the best wire for the ET-2 tonearm ? One that is pliable/doesn’t crink or curl. Whats the best way of dressing it so it doesn’t impact the arm. Through the spindle - Over the manifold - Below manifold ? What have you come up with ?
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Chris is exactly right, the 412 is not a as linear as the 420; a perfect description. As far as I know, the body ("corpus", thank you Nandric) of the two are identical. The difference between the two is in the stylus assembly. If you don't plan on doing a lot of cartridge swapping, and given how easy it is to swap stylus assemblies, it might be of value to you to have a 412 stylus assembly for casual listening and thus save the stylus life of your 420 stylus assembly.
The designer/producer of the Terminator tonearm bought one
of my 420 and also 415, 412 and M 312 STR by the 'pizza guy'
in Italy. He was impressed by 420 and M 312 and not
so much by the other two. The 312 is still available on the
Italian ebay ( testina giradichi) for 45 euro + postage (12euro?).
I know of course that the Terminator is no match for the
ET-2 but both are linear so why not try?
Chris: Regarding your recent reply about the 420str... I'm really not sure what I'm suppose to take from this. Frankly, I love the cart/the sound w/my system. I was the one that initially remarked here or to you privately that the cart pins/angle would be an issue. I'm not one that really wants to try cart after cart. when I find one that sounds this good, I'm good. ( I have thought of a way to remedy my much earlier cart/pin/overhang issue when I decide to take the time). I'm just having too much fun listening and frankly don't want to take the time to change right now. Too much good music, too little time! Yes, it's true!
Nandric -I know of course that the Terminator is no match for the ET-2 but both are linear so why not try?
Hi Nandric (Nikola) Never heard the Terminator yet alone on the same table as an ET2. Feel free to share your impressions. There are Terminator owners here as you know.

I have found personally, and you can confirm this by looking at individual setups.

We SL Tonearm owners seem to share one thing in common- a straight line – anywhere on the LP.

From there we are all very individualistic. Not one set up is the same.

Cheers Chris
Slaw - Mark asked for an opinion - I gave one. I am done with cartridges myself. Unfortunately I keep misplacing/losing the damn screws in the carpet. I hear tinkle tinkle sometimes when I vacuum. Hence my post about the screws. Have a nice day. I have to go shovel snow. Haven't seen anything like this in 10 years.
Cheers Chris