Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Hi Ct0517, I'm very rusty since its about 15 years since I used the ET2, but from memory I had an I beam with a thin metal strip at the bearing tube end. I packed soft strip ( might have used thin lead or teflon ) either side of the thin metal bit that goes into the bracket on the end of the bearing tube and then played around with the tightness of the clamp - I was able to vary the lossiness of the I beam from rigid to virtually floating. Then I settled the point that gave the most natural bass soundwise with air around it.
Re the magnetic dampening, I used a small cupboard door magnet and simply placed it on the turntable plinth with a packer to get the magnet as close to the bearing tube ( the moving one ) without touching it. This magnetic dampening is used by Dynavector on their tonearms where a curved horizontal metal near the counterweight moves through 2 magnets above and below it as the tonearm transverses the record.

Ct: As far as the high pressure manifols beiing "custom built", not, at least in my case. I had my (.5) upgrade done at least 15 years ago and Bruce did't ask me what pump/pressure I was using. I'm currently running 18psi,
Ketcup: I can run over 20 psi right now and not affect anything but the hose/connectors. IE: No issues regharding over 20psi into the ET 2.5 manifold.
Apbii: Any "soft" form of (suspension) in the VPI line of TT will result in a softening of transients and ,you guessed it, MUSIC.

OK guys, This is obvious, any rubber, compliant, suspension, WILL result in a overly warm, muddy, less "What we are all looking for" SOUND!!!!!

Gotta love these mods that don't cost anything to try. WTH - honey what happened to all the magnets that used to be on the kitchen cupboards ?

Thx Dover - sounds like the our single, double metal strip IBeams are another way to accomplish this ?

Frogman - I am going to super glue the shaft of the older empire I have and connect to the body. I agree it could be alot more rigid. Will let u know how it works out.

Slaw - I should have got it in an email from Bruce.

Slaw, while I agree overall with your comments re type of suspension in the VPI line, I would qualify them with these observations IN MY SYSTEM:

The "overly warm" description is definitely system dependent. What might be overly warm in your system might be perfect in another. This also highlights semantics issues. I experimented with all types of suspensions in my sequence of VPI's (HW19mk2, 3 &4, TNT with spring and currently rubber ball suspension. I found spring suspensions (particularly with the HW19 series) to produce a more diffuse sound, not necessarily warmer. In fact, I found the sound to be less even linearly, with some highlighting of the lower highs, producing overall a sense of a brighter, not warmer, sound. This also gave the sound a livelier character; although I believe that was the result of the tonal highlighting, and less so a result of any issue of dynamics. Upturned metal cones (least compliant) in the HW19 produced a very tight, brighter and detailed sound, but too lean in my system. Sorbothane pucks with upturned short tiptoes was best. With my TNT, which began as a TNT6 plinth with original spring corner towers, the sound was again livelier but edgier and diffuse/bloated compared to the current rubber suspension.

Frogman I do remember having an issue with air loss from the manifold due to a cap screw leaking. I don't remember which one it was, I resolved it by using Teflon plumbers tape on the cap screw.

Conversations with Bruce T implied that some have had problems with stripping the threads in the manifold where the adjustment block attaches.

I also think that if these screws are too loose it allows the arm to flex quite a bit which would seem to be very counterproductive.