Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

AudioGon Alert

ET2 Setups taking over the new systems category ...

Pegasus ! put up some pictures. Two is a couple. Three makes it official.

8^0

John - like Harry you have a nice airy room. Not familiar with those dipole speakers. I am a fan of dipoles. Not familiar with Harry's speakers either.

I gotta tell you. ...that is one long I beam you got there.....
Can you provide the details on how you got it/made it - I think you said you sourced it from the hobby shop ?

I have done the test going in with the most weight closest to the bearing and hearing the bass resonance/distortion in my room. if I kept going further in Bruce told me I would actually bottom the bearing out.

I think you said earlier that going further out with your elongated I Beam - and it became detrimental to the music in your room ? The weight positioning in the 2nd pic looks similar to the furthest you can go on a stock I Beam - your distance must be more hard to tell. Interested to know what happened to the music to let you know you went too far out.

Now that I think about it, I have never asked Bruce why he chose the size of I beam he did. Maybe due to measurements; maybe so it fit on the table. probably a combination of both ?  

Chris

Well Harry and Chris
The I-beam is just a plastic "girder" you can get at most hobby stores. I just cut it to a reasonable length, removed the spring from a stock I-beam and slid and glued it into place on the girder. There are no tracking force gradations on the girder, but I didn't use those anyway. -I just set the weights to obtain my prescribed tracking force and wiggle from there by the sound. 
As to how far out to go, use the least weight possible for your cartridge, and move out until the base response starts to deteriorate. This might change with adding a spring or two to the I-beam. For instance, I started with just the weight that the other weights attach to and had that way out the beam. -No go. Had to add a weight and go from there further in on the beam. -Complicated, eh?
Today, I received springs and I-beams from Bruce, but I think I'll stick with the long I-beam, and add a spring or two. -Sounds like two springs will work for my low compliance cartridge, but experimenting is half the fun.
I use the term antique for my system because the amps, speakers, turntable, and arm are all 20 years old.  They work well if you know how to maintain them. I've
learned over the years to do all my own maintenance and mods. It's amazing what you can do with a soldering iron, voltmeter, and decibel meter (Radio shack and vintage).
Thanks for looking at my humble system,
John

Harry - I will have a little AA ( Audiophile Anxiety) until you are able to setup and tune that Mag wand in your room - 8^0   

John - look forward to your findings with the leaf springs and in comparing your modded I beam to the stock I beam.

Emailed with Bruce who confirmed original I Beams were Carbon Fiber - the news ones are 3D printed with PLA.

So I called a local hobby shop re: I Beams. They were out of stock but directed me to this link. 

"Evergreen Scale Models"  

scroll down 6 from the bottom. One can see the I Beams. Bruce did tell me if there was interest he could do a run on the longer I Beams. As I suspected the original ones were in part the length they are so they could fit under TT covers. Clue; he would of liked to have one more inch.   

Cheers Chris

Chris,
Bruce shipped it today, I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas.
Harry

Hey Chris,
You did some good research.
I was fortunate to have a large hobby shop in my town, and just brought the original I-beam with me to compare sizes. A micrometer might be useful if you order online, or wait for Bruce's run.
Yes, Bruce told me that he liked my modification, and admitted that sales were up since this thread was resurrected. He said that he had serious size constraints, based on the tables in production at the time, and would have made his I-beam longer if it weren't for this.
I forgot to ask whether the carbon fiber made any difference, but I doubt it's critical.
I'm going to experiment over the weekend with adding extra springs to my I-beam,
without any damping fluid in the trough. 
John