Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

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.

OD is 'outside diameter'.
ID is 'inside diameter'.

Chris
Good to read about the mag wands performance. Thanks for giving us a clear view on what it does. Also impressive engineering all over again from Bruce.

Thanks Henry – its the words turn and bore that are intriguing to me.
Richard - I would like to see a video of this whole process.
I have seen many videos of how records are made and have been to one record plant many years ago.
The old record making videos always show a bunch of ladies at the end of the process just prior to inserting them into sleeves; They could all pass for your Aunt (fill in the name). They represent quality control as they eyeball the records. :^)

Chris.
When Bruce machines the wand, I assume that this is what happens...
The bore thing is basically drilling a hole to create the ID dimension. Sometimes the drill is rotated, some times the work piece (bar) is rotated. It depends upon the machining centre. For complex internal shapes it is possible to undercut the workpiece such that a larger ID is created say in the center section compared to the two ends of the resultant hole.
The turn process is like moving a chisel along the outside axis of the spinning bar to create the OD dimensions. The chisel can be moved in and out to create different ODs along the length of the bar.

I could send you a video of our milling machines running but you don't see a lot as the work piece is flooded in cutting fluid to keep it and the tools cool, lubricated and help with swarf removal.

The art in this process is getting the feed ( how fast you pass the cutting tool along the surface ) and speed rates ( how fast you spin the work piece or cutting tool ) optimized to produce the required tolerances and surface finish, in sync with the conflicting requirement of finished product thru put, tool wear, and machine loading.