Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

****Chris has taught me the extreme importance of the air supply. A good smooth source of air lifts the arms performance considerably. ****

Completely agree; and analogous (pun intended) to the importance of good clean (smooth) power for our electronics.

Sharing part of an interesting article I am came across today on vinyl.

(Reproduced in part from the entertainment section of today's Toronto Star Newspaper)

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Interviewer - But what, exactly, are we talking about when we say that vinyl sounds warm?

“The bottom line? As humans listening, we do not like square waves,” says renowned producer/mastering engineer Peter J. Moore, known for his legendary one-microphone recording of the Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Sessions.

OK, so in layman’s terms, what is a square wave?

“It’s when you go from absolutely quiet to super loud with no time at all,” says Moore, who has also worked with everyone from Holly Cole to Neil Young.

Sensing, shall we say, a lack of comprehension on the other end of the line, Moore gamely tries to illustrate his point without the benefit of diagrams or hand gestures. (Any perceived ambiguity in his explanation is our fault, not his.)

“If I slap two pieces of wood right beside your ear, that’s about the only time in the real world that you would feel a square wave,” he says.

“That would make you jump out of your skin.

“Digital, especially MP3s, reproduce square waves like crazy. That actually upsets people! You’re triggering your fear, which also triggers fatigue. It’s unnatural.

“Now, if I was across the room and slapped two sticks together, it would take time for that wave to travel to you and by then the square wave has rounded off.”

And what does that have to do with vinyl?

“A turntable playing a vinyl record could not reproduce a square wave if it tried.”

Why can’t it?

“If I have a wire that’s one-inch long, it takes no time for sound to travel over that wire. But in the coil in a turntable cartridge, that wire is very long and it’s wrapped around a magnet. So it takes a lot of time to get through that magnet and come out the other side. By the time it comes out, the sharpness, the ugliness has been rounded.

“That,” says Moore, “is what people mean by warm.”

(Reproduced in part from the entertainment section of today's Toronto Star Newspaper)

fwiw - I found the analogy of hitting the two sticks closeup to your ear and at a distance very interesting. Never heard it explained this way before.

Richardkrebs
I did not say that the mass of your arm is “300% heavier at these frequencies”. I have said that your horizontal effective mass is 300% heavier than standard.

Your arm is 300% heavier than standard. You added 30g of lead and removing the decoupled counterweight increases effective horizontal mass above FR. These 2 changes have increased the horizontal effective mass of your arm by some 300%.

Since the removal of the decoupling increases the horizontal effective mass above FR - FR for most systems would be below 10hz, then we can say that the increase in horizontal effective mass of some 300% will affect all reproduction above 10hz.

As far as below FR goes, your argument is the cantilever does not flex below FR. I dont agree with this as confirmed by Bruce Thigpen in his correspondence. I have seen cantilevers flex on eccentric records and will post a video at some stage.

However the cantilever and suspension still see this mass.

As far as the damping paddle goes, Bruce Thigpen provides this option for the standard ET2. Thigpen does not sell an ET2 with a fixed counterweight and 30g of added lead. Your claims that one can achieve a flat response in the bass with a fixed counterweight and 30g of added lead mass are not supported by any testing.

Frogman & Ct0517: I feel the need to admit the fact I was wrong. Early on in this thread, there was a discussion regarding the sonics of "The Nightfly" lp. I've been modifying my wall panels and decided to replay this lp. My verdict is while it's obviously a digital recording, I can now listen to it and enjoy! Ahhh! CT0517, you were right, it was my room.