2. analog
  3. 1325551242

Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners


Where are you? What mods have you done ?

I have been using these ET2's for over 9 years now.
I am still figuring them out and learning from them. They can be modified in so many ways. Bruce Thigpen laid down the GENIUS behind this tonearm over 20 years ago. Some of you have owned them for over 20 years !

Tell us your secrets.

New owners – what questions do you have ?

We may even be able to coax Bruce to post here. :^)

There are so many modifications that can be done.

Dressing of the wire with this arm is critical to get optimum sonics along with proper counterweight setup.

Let me start it off.

Please tell us what you have found to be the best wire for the ET-2 tonearm ? One that is pliable/doesn’t crink or curl. Whats the best way of dressing it so it doesn’t impact the arm. Through the spindle - Over the manifold - Below manifold ? What have you come up with ?
ct0517
frogman
7,516 posts
 
Chris, I agree re firm pneumatic suspension; that was the best solution for me given my table's environment. My TNT sits on a wall shelf which fixed the springy floor problem I was having, but created others. With my previous HW19's (II, III & IV) I experimented with just about everything. The sound was best with upturned large tiptoes, but settled on upturned short tiptoes sitting inside Sorbothane pucks as the best compromise. I did not like sound with the springs nearly as much.

BTW, the Forsell still sits in the box (es) :-(
leon_krige
5 posts
 
Thanks Again CT,

Have done a careful 1st setup trying to free the wires as far as possible, the arm came with VdHul silver wires, a little stiff from what I can gather, will only find out what she does once I get compressor connections done with moisture filter, hopefully tomorrow, its been quite a challenge just getting male to female to androgenous etc...
talk about affect vs effect!

Have a loaned MM for these early learning days, till I find my ET feet... but it looks gorgeous with a new clean plexiglass surface to hide the old surface damage on Goldmund acrylic, resprayed the base with quality german metallic black, Goldmund is back to beautiful...

Will test as is before I alter the springs etc, but I hear a majority in favour. My room is quite large, with a T&G hardwood floor, on a stainless steel spiked stand with double glass shelves separated by sorbothane, have to take all this into acount before altering the system.

IMHO Pierre Lurne who I think designed these Goldmund TT's was no slouch, there's a lot of brilliant thinking in there.

Thanks again for all the info, as I've been setting up this machine I realise how much brilliant engineering has gone into the design, its like an open ended musical annotation system, just waiting for someone to understand it...
ct0517's avatar
ct0517 OP
2,041 posts
 
Frogman - BTW, the Forsell still sits in the box (es) :-(

Frogman - this indicates to me that you are happy with the current set up. enjoy the music :-)

fwiw - I find it very ironic and kind of funny actually that your Forsell, and my JN Lenco, two highly praised tables from a particular bloggers webage, lie in storage..... albeit for different reasons. Fascinating hobby.

LK - VdHul silver wires, a little stiff from what I can gather

imo - stiff for this ET2 air bearing application - not great. In another air bearing application where the design needs the wire to resist a little for damping - another story. Which do you feel is a better design ? Stiff wire inside a speaker cabinet - not a bad thing.

my experiences - Braided unshielded wires help to resist RF, which is a good thing. But the wire itself become very unruly with a mind of its own when braided and asked to curve just a little. This can become a real PITA real fast. Where it leaves the armtube my wires are separated like strands of hair. Their physical resistance is cut by at least half by doing this. Each wire is then tested for RF individually. Preamp muted, lower the stylus onto a still record, unmute your preamp phonostage turn the volume up - move each wire around until things are quiet. Hold in place with blue tack.

Look forward to your impressions LK.

Cheers
banquo363
371 posts
 
New member of the owner's club here. I'm a bit confused by mine though. Do I need a special turntable?
ct0517's avatar
ct0517 OP
2,041 posts
 
I'm a bit confused by mine though. Do I need a special turntable?

:^) Welcome to the da club Banquo363.

Interesting sellers pic of the ET2 you posted. I did a double take on it. I assume (like the others here?) that the seller had little knowledge of the ET2 based on this pic, and was therefore just the seller and not the previous owner.

The armtube is showing 2 o'clock time. The seller needed to roll it back 5 hours (counter clockwise) to get to the 9 o'clock position to be correct for the sales ad picture. You got yourself an ET2 with a carbon fibre armwand and cartridge too. A type of aluminum ? pod / tonearm holder by the looks of it. I wonder what is inside the pod ? guess we will find out ..I think some real audio hobby passion went into this one by someone ......

fwiw - take notice of the green bubble level on the manifold. From my experiences these don't work with the ET2 and this is why.

1) Turntables are made from different parts. Getting one part level whether the plinth, platter, tonearm base...does not guarantee all of them will be level especially the air bearing spindle. I level in this order 1) the platter, 2) The ET2 with its own leveling spikes 3) The air bearing spindle last - using gravity not my eyes for 3 and by making it free float and not move. Think teeter totter with two same weighted friends.

2)If you do this with your eyes and the bubble level you are ignoring the effect of the wires - push or pull when the armtube is placed at the platter outer, inner edges and midpoint. Once leveled by free floating the bubble level may be out a little. This is the effect of the wires from my experiences. Leveling without the wires first then adding the wires in would confirm this.
More to discover