The Mag Wand after a couple listens.
Just thinking about it - we have talked at length here about the vertical and horizontal masses. My personal experience has been any time I can increase the vertical mass of the ET2 arm itself - it is a good thing to my ears. With that increasing the armwand weight itself also increases the ET2’s horizontal mass. So its a kind of game. You need to trust your ears.
Turning the counterweight cap down is significant in my system. I keep the weights at around 3:30 on the clock. If you don’t believe it try turning the weights up to 2:00 and see what happens to the sound using the middle of the air bearing spindle at 3:00 as a reference.
I left the MM that was on there as to change only one variable at a time. What I got was more impact, presence, aggressiveness, attack,.... weightier sounds overall.
One example Dire Straits – self titled album. Guitar plucks on Water of Love. The Bass impact on Six Blade Knife. The weightiness to the voice. This is immediately apparent and then you settle into the sound. So would more weight and attack be a good or bad thing in your own system ? Only each of us can answer that. When my teenage daughter plays our 1958 Heintzman piano - her mood - affects her play. Sometimes the piano has more attack and weight sometimes less. I have learned she is more approachable when the sound has less attack in it and the sound is more delicate and graceful.
I asked Bruce how he makes the mag wand.
Chris,
It is turned from one piece of magnesium solid bar stock. We turn the O.D., bore the I.D. and then heat the tube to 450F to form the headshell end of the tube in a die. Thank you very much.
brucet
Can someone explain to me what “turn the OD, bore the I.D.” means ?
It required one extra skinny lead weight for balancing over the Carbon Fibre armwand with lead (only) weights setup according to Dorothy.
