Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Dover, very interesting. The ET2 manual states that overhang should be set in such a way that the stylus lands on a perpendicular line which intersects the platter spindle. I have always found that I get better image stability (particularly with center image), and an overall more relaxed sound if I extend the arm wand so that the stylus lands a tiny bit beyond that line. Is that what you mean by "run a tiny amount of overhang"? Interestingly, the effect is more noticeable with low compliance cartridges.

Frogman/Dover, I wonder if this is about adding a small and constant skating force to help propel the carriage toward the spindle in a more controlled manner. Similarly, when leveling the carriage, optimal set-up may call for a very slight tilt of the manifold toward the spindle to gain assistance from gravity. I tend to find level empirically-- by watching the behavior of the stylus in the lead-in and run-out sections, observing cantilever deflection, and listening for tracking problems and distortion. I suppose I should add a leveling bubble to the air manifold for a more precise assessment.

Frogman - yes. Ed Thigpen's response at the time was "he's probably right".
Dgarretson, I use to check the level on my ET2 by balancing it to 0 with an additional counterweight and checking that when nudged the arm would travel freely and the same distance in both directions from centre. This as well as a level on top of the tube. Possibly a string bias weight type of weight pulling on the end of the armtube may be "gentler" than tilting the arm in your instance ??.

Frogman and other SL tonearm devotee's: I would think you are defeating one of the prime advantages of an SL tonearm by deliberately setting the stylus so that it is not on the radius of the LP (a line from the outer edge through the center of the spindle). By not doing that, you have a small but constant amount of tracking angle error at all points across the surface, and like Dave said, you have introduced some skating force for which you cannot compensate (no AS on an SL tonearm). However, as Duke said, if it sounds good, it IS good.

Dgarretson
I wonder if this is about adding a small and constant skating force to help propel the carriage toward the spindle in a more controlled manner. Similarly, when leveling the carriage, optimal set-up may call for a very slight tilt of the manifold toward the spindle to gain assistance from gravity.

Well IMO both of these represent a bad compromise and bad design. As far as the ET2 is concerned I have read posts that relate to a slight tilt a few times here. Here is a more recent one from Tonywinsc

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1342120769&openflup&22&4#22

From that post

I had a buddy who used the ET2 linear arm on his VPI table. It took him a few years to figure it out, but I recall him telling me that he had to level his table a certain way- slightly downwards, I think and it would track perfectly. He also said that he had to keep the air bearing tube perfectly clean. It would sound grainy if the tube had any dust on it.

This ET2 was setup on a tilt to help send it to the spindle. This is a result of not reading setup instructions. They also say men have a problem asking for directions too. So I guess Tony's friend never figured it out.

When I raise my ET2 arm and let its cueing lever eccentric actually rest against the cueing eccentric. At 19 psi I can lightly blow against the cartridge and even with it at rest, and the friction involved with the lever at rest on the cueing eccentric, it will still traverse the entire platter. It does not need gravity. Hence the simplicity, beauty and elegance of the ET2 design to me. Platter leveling is done first with a bubble level the length of the patter itself. The arm itself is then balanced with extra blue tac on the weights and gravity as previously discussed here on the thread. Sometimes the bar can get set high in the first jump.