Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Chris: I am in total agreement concerning the sonic gains you must be getting in having the armboard separate from the plinth. If my room were larger, I'd try the same thing. I do however have some new thoughts in mind for a new armboard (replacing the stock one) that could isolate the ET better. I am going to try this at some point when I get my other issues worked out.

I'm totally happy with the "up @ over", and I have no doubt that with the new mounting structure I'm thinking of (will not be mounted to the TT base @ and I'm going to try Frogman's recommendation of the AN wire), I'll be even happier. One drawback with my current support structure is not very much room to access the lever to pull the spindle back. My new one will be mounted to the Symposium base thereby having better access and less vibration.

BTW Chris, I liked the pic you provided us of the wire Take Five Audio built for you. I loved the attention that was paid to the gradual step down coming out of the WBTs. Was this accomplished with teflon tubing?

Thanks for the compliment on my motor enclosure. I built it myself. My second try at one. I really learned alot from my first try. It may not pass a WAF, but to me the beauty is in it's solid construction and how it performs. I'm still planning on using a bearing/pinch roller scheme something like Dgarretson uses, that to me will be killer when it is finished.
Once you try thread drive, there's no going back, IMO.

Hi Henry – welcome to the thread.

I will reply to your question with my actual DD and idler impressions later. Need to catch up with the holiday weekend that was anything but a holiday with two soon to be 18 years olds packed up and sent away to college. Now I wait for their phone calls. Damn... now I need to change their phone plans before I get dinged with huge bills. :^(

Slaw

I am in total agreement concerning the sonic gains you must be getting in having the armboard separate from the plinth.

Correction – replace the word plinth with platter, motor, bearing

The word plinth is one of those bad words – it has been corrupted by analog audiophiles - IMO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plinth

Plinth to me means common platform. All my TT’s have a plinth. How the tonearm, motor, and platter, bearing connect to this common platform varies. There are good designs and bad designs. I have personally found that a well executed- bad design, can out perform a badly executed - good design.

DG - need to look at that tonearm some more. living /breathing egg beater ?

Chris: I am referring to 'plinth' as does VPI when describing their tt designs, and as far as I know, most TT manufacturerers do. I have to say, the wiki link you provided seems to confirm the intent I initially meant. The plinth in my TT is 'the' platform you speak of. The armboard is connected to this 'plinth', (and becomes part of it) that supports the platter and bearing.

Chris: I think I oversimplified my response to this now, I appologize.

Dgarretson: I looked again at your "egg beater" wire loom. Very interesting and "smart" execution. Question, Do the two 'outer strands' of your egg beater design, need to be slightly longer to acheive proper "force vector"? If so, does this have an effect on your balanced cable design?

Slaw
The plinth in my TT is 'the' platform you speak of. The armboard is connected to this 'plinth', (and becomes part of it) that supports the platter and bearing.

Here is some food for thought.

I have found when comparing and listening to how the vibrations and resonances in this hobby affect the different sounds we get; that identifying “ground zero” aka the common base/plinth for all components in a turntable system (bearing/platter/spindle/motor/tonearm-cartridge) was important for me.

Slaw – in your system pic - your motor/enclosure is not attached, or even on the same base as your VPI plinth - what this means to me ...

Your VPI plinth is the plinth/base for only the platter/spindle/bearing and tonearm/cartridge.
Your wall shelf is the plinth/base for the actual motor.
Being a vibration/resonance hobby everything has an effect on your overall sound that we are getting so ….

What is the overall turntable “system” common base/plinth that the overall sound is actually based on ?

IMO

1) If all of your turntable parts were on one wall shelf your actual overall turntable system plinth would be that shelf.
2) If all of it was on two separate wall shelves then “The Wall” itself becomes the common base/plinth.
3) Still further based on your photo – if the motor is on the wall shelf and the remaining turntable parts on a floor rack - as it appears in your photo? , then both wall and floor factor in as a shared base/plinth for the turntable system, and how resonances and vibrations will affect the sound.

Thoughts ?

No more coffee for me this morning ...