Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

RK - If this is correct then it may be better to have the regulator remote from the arm. A long length of soft hose to the arm then helping to smooth out the regulator pressure irregularities. Obviously more testing is required. One test would be to fit a surge tank after the regulator in a rig with a regulator close to the arm. Or simply add another long length of soft tube which would be so easy to do....Chris.

Hi Richard - the extra in room regulator I use allows for AB testing of this at anytime. Long tube versus short going to the tonearm. All I have to do is open /disengage the in room regulator and it functions as a filter only, so in effect is a long tube to the pump. Let me explain something about my Timeter pump and it will make things more clear.

From my experiences most pumps push air and the user is at the mercy of the environment as far as the quality of the air output goes. Meaning if the air has any moisture and particles, filters are needed to trap them. The ET tonearm's maker resides in Florida where it can get really humid. The ET 2.0, 2.5 tonearms if they had a choice would probably choose to live in Arizona; or in a room where there is forced air heating. They like the air dry ....very, very dry.

My Timeter was designed for human use and has performance settings as far as how humid I choose to send air out at.
Example:
If you are in a room and want to be comfortable you would probably prefer air around 55-60 which is in the middle of the humidity scale to be really comfortable. The Timeter - with my T valve regulator at the pump (see pics on my virtual page) can be dialed down/tightened so that it exhales dry Arizona like air - even if the room it is in is at 80 % humidity. No other pump/compressor I am aware of does this and the ET 2.5 loves dry air. I have never seen a DROP of water in the in room regulator bulb other than the one time there was a blockage. Now the pump does need to work harder to produce moisture free air in a humid room. For three seasons late fall, winter, early spring the basement stays fairly dry with the natural gas heating. Once summer kicks in, it takes only 3 days for the basement to start feeling like a basement again - humid and damp. This is also the time when I make an adjustment to the Timeter by tightening down the regulator at pump's outlet so the performance gauge reads in the green zone. Green zone for this compressor/pump means the system is running efficiently and no moisture is being sent down the line. It expels the moisture like a car's AC at the bottom of the pump.
It used to do 50 psi when new. It probably does around 45 now and I bought it used many years ago. With the in room regulator in engaged mode - I send down 21-22 psi from the pump and I steal 19 psi with the in room's regulator. So pressure drops at the arms location on purpose (Dover alluded to this in one of his posts) The excess air goes into the atmosphere beside the pump. So in fact I bleed out 25 + psi.

I prefer to run with the in room regulator functioning as a regulator with the short run to the arm. It is I believe more precise and the long tubing just before it acts like a second, redundant surge tank in addition to the timeter's own built in surge tank . Redundancy is good. Remember I am in the business of contingency planning/risk mgmt - redundancy is ingrained in me. You can call this mad, or you can call this anal.

The in room regulator is set for 19 psi. Along with being more precise/consistent, its bulb area also stabilizes the air (temperature) so it is same as in my room. Your average listening room goes up in temp as time goes by. Its important for the air imo going into the manifold being same temp as your room - just really dry.
The in room regulator also gives me a visual of what is going on. Kind of like driving a car with real engine and radiator temperature gauges. I want to know what is going on. Sorry for the long post.

Cheers

You can call this mad, or you can call this anal.

So go ahead and call me mad or call me anal.......just pls don't call me Dorothy.....I am not worthy.

Chris.

You have now given us all another area to pine over. Humidity.....thanks a lot! :-)

I don't think that your test is quite representative of what I was suggesting, since you are disabling one regulator but leaving its body in circuit. If their is any instability in the regulator it could be caused by the its structure, since the air flow path is convoluted. For example the water separator function is achieved by creating a vortex in the bowl.

I will have a play this weekend where I move the regulator close to the arm, making the adjustment for line losses. This will keep the arm pressure the same.
I will use exactly the same hose and length so the only variable will be the reg position.

BTW, I have a pressure gauge very close to the arm, it reads in bar. Setting the pressure by ear results in a reading of 1.25 bar which is a little over 18 psi, not the 17 psi I mentioned earlier. That said how accurate are the gauges we are using anyway?

cheers.

don't think that your test is quite representative of what I was suggesting, since you are disabling one regulator but leaving its body in circuit. If their is any instability in the regulator it could be caused by the its structure, since the air flow path is convoluted. For example the water separator function is achieved by creating a vortex in the bowl.

this is true Richard. not the best example - I could unplug both ends and just use a coupler.

That said how accurate are the gauges we are using anyway?

Even if these devices were perfect we know that no two records are identical.
Always trust your own ears. Use measurement devices. PSI gauges, alignment devices, VTF scales to just get into the ball park. Fine tune with your ears.

Chris.

Even if you use a joiner, you will still be removing one regulator from the air circuit so it will not be a true AB test.

Yep agree, measurements only take you so far.
We don't listen to numbers.