Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Hi Richard

regarding the damping trough location.
Are you still using your trough ahead of the manifold on your custom ET2 ?
My thoughts have changed on this.
The trough paddle is attached to end bearing cap on the stock ET2 and ET2.5.
The cap also holds the I Beam => which holds the ET2, 2.5 family jewels (lead weights and spring/s)
That end cap is therefore the common joiner for all of them.
We change resonances by using 1-3 springs and lead weight positioning,
My thinking is it therefore makes sense to have the trough paddle attached to the end bearing cap as designed.

your thoughts ...

others ?

Chris.

Hmmm. Haven't put any thought into the trough location for literally years.
I put my design trough at the wand end to reduce any shake rattle and roll of the wand itself and by extension the cartridge. Since the key to performance of the trough is to better keep the cartridge body still, it seems to be the place to position it. We have the minimum number of joints between the paddle and the cartridge, so this should be the most efficacious place, aside from putting the paddle on the headshell like Townsend did. I was just not prepared to deal with the hassle of this approach.
My arm would need a bit of engineering to position the trough at the CW end. Difficult but not impossible.

****My thinking is it therefore makes sense to have the trough paddle attached to the end bearing cap as designed.****

Chris, interesting consideration, but I am not so sure that is always the "best" location. I use the trough as intended out of convenience, but have always been intrigued by the Townshend approach of silicone damping at the headshell. Additionally, since "We change resonances by using 1-3 springs and lead weight positioning", is it not possible that is precisely why damping closer to the headshell makes sense? IOW, if we optimize resonance characteristics at the rear bearing cap, introducing damping at that point would then change that resonance "balance" to the extent that, for instance, a different spring might perform better with a given cartridge.

Our sound systems are still so imperfect that, wether we like to admit it or not, we use resonance "control" as tone controls at least to some degree. Seems to me that in an LP playback "system" what we hear as sound improvements or degradations when manipulating resonances are the result of how those resonances affect the actual performance of a cartridge/tonearm system in absolute terms not just in the subjective sense of, for instance, preferring the brightness through a particular frequency band that particular resonances may introduce. To my way of thinking it is easy to understand how certain resonances may affect the actual working of a cartridge's suspension and motor given the very low level at which the mechanical to electrical conversion takes place. On the other hand resonances that occur within, say, a turntable's plinth will affect perceived frequency balance but, seems to me, are unlikely to affect the actual mechanical "performance" of the turntable. However, those same resonances will travel to the cartridge and may affect the performance of the cartridge, so it may make sense to damp as close as possible to the cartridge. Lastly, the "shock absorber" benefit of fluid damping in stabilizing the arms movement will be there regardless of the location.

Just some ruminations possibly the result of too much L-tryptophan :-)
Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving day!

Richard and Frogman thanks for the comments.

BT in the damping trough manual

You can see visually small ripples on the surface of an LP as it is turning. These continuously excite the tonearm resonance.

I am firmly in the camp of regardless what your vinyl playback system is - it is but a slave to the actual record.
I am also a hobbyist and not a manufacturer, dealer, distributor of analog products and or services.

imo - those that set the standards for records many years ago - never imagined $5000 cartridges, $5000 tonearms and $30,000 tables of today. If they did they would have come up with better standards for the records.
Frogman - as far as tone controls go I agree 100 per cent. We know when they make a record they boost the highs to drown out the cutter noise. And reduce the lows so the grooves are smaller (to fit 20 mins of music) and to keep the stylus from flying out of the groove when we play a record. We then use our cartridge and equalizer (also called a preamp/phono stage) to re-equalize levels to where we can hear it all. So to those audiophile purists that balk at equalizers - your phono stage just happens to be one. If you play vinyl you use one.

possibly the result of too much L-tryptophan :-)

To Frogman and others possibly suffering from Tryptophan may I recommend some music.
In digital form now, originated from an analog master tape.
The sampler tracks are not downloadable (yet) but can be enjoyed with either headphones hooked to your laptop or a line feed from laptop's headphone jack going to your preamp.

http://ultraanaloguerecordings.com/wpsite/sample-tracks/

I am not affiliated with the site but am a customer of their tapes.
Cheers

Thanks for the links, Chris. Very nice! Great to hear the Gliere; love that piece. I couldn't find artist info on the site. Is it there?