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 ?
128x128ct0517
Hi Slaw – are you running an in room ET2 filter or pressure regulator ? I added a ground to the in room regulator at the suggestion of Richard. It seems to have helped. Recommend you give it a try.

Hum Story and maybe a lesson.

I am finishing the space in the adjacent basement area next to my main room. I noticed a hum coming from a certain area in the room near the ceiling by a light. Looking over I noticed a little transformer attached to the light base from the time the house was built. It was humming away – could be heard from a few feet away. I disconnected it and peace prevailed. The room is quiet now.
My wife is not too happy because I have not yet reinstalled the wire to the back of the house like I said I would. I have discovered that I like not having a doorbell, and I told her there is a “door knocker” on the door. My kids are on my side on this one. But they are also the ones too lazy to get up and see who is at the door whenever anyone shows up. Now here is something I find interesting. Of the people that come to the door. No one appears to know what the obvious “in your face” door knocker is for anymore. They knock with their knuckles instead when they discover the push button doorbell doesn’t work. We have become a pushbutton society.

My Lesson Learned.
What if you have a system on a raised main floor, and the gear is sitting in a rack, or near the ground (amp/s) a foot or two from this humming transformer just below. Only a wood floor separates them.

Dover was the noise from the silver wiring noticeable on your Final Audio or another TT ?

03-31-13: Dover
Richardkrebs re your last post.
I believe we have something in common. In the contract work I specialise in I too am totally indispensable.

Dover/Richard, in my line of work (business continuity planning) one of the key objectives of every project for the consultants is to identify and eliminate as many SPF’s as possible. Single Points of Failure. By eliminate I mean an "action plan" for management to follow in a powerpoint or similar presentation.

Richard, as an admirer of the Kuzma Airline tonearm; do you have any thoughts on Kuzma’s Top of the Line Version which comes with a
Brass Armpod

Have you ever used, experimented with a armpod ?

Cheers
Dover-Chris, Thanks... I'm using a carbon fiber arm wand. My main concern in my upcoming tt design is the tonearm wire construction, and implementation. Some of you may remember, I have the AN wire in the wings, I'm not very confident on my skills as a small guage tonearm wire constructor. "Huh?" I've had several carts, throughout the years, mm & mc's, there is more noise associated with MM's. Should/could I try to run a ground from the armwand separately? My belief is that the CF armwand is a cf skin, on a magnesium or aluminum core??? The headshell is the same for all armwands???
A note.... the level of information and experience here is remarkable! I'm glad to be a recepient. Keep it coming....
Chris/Slaw - At the time I tried the van den hul the arm was mounted on a Roksan Xerxes. I was using a Shure V15Vmr so that could have been a contributing factor for picking up RF due to the higher impedance than a MC. Having said that, with litz wire there was no RF in the same situation. This suggests that even if you cant hear RF a litz wire will provide a lower noise floor.
Hi, I hope that you all had a great Easter break with Family and Friends.

Chris. I don't have any first hand experience with arm pods. They tend to go against the grain so to speak, in the quest for absolute dimensional stability between platter and arm. That said it seems that there are many admirers of this approach and, other than to quote others, it would not be prudent for me to comment on the sound of something I have not personally heard.

Re arm wiring and earthing.
For anyone looking to earth the aluminium wand. Anodised al is an insulator so you would need to scratch thru this to bare metal. Something I would be reluctant to do.

Earthing the air stream should be done as close as possible to the arm. I have a pressure gauge close by and have grounded the metal part of this that protrudes into the air line. Simply cutting the hose and rejoining with an appropriately sized metal tube would do. Solder an earth wire to this. You can expect a quieter backdround and a good jump in transients.

I have been waiting for someone to run the arm wiring completely outside the wand and spindle. The results would be interesting, assuming that there are no RF issues.
Wouldn't look to pretty however.