Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Not sure if this has been brought before.
I read a post on Audio Asylum about the manifold mount and how flimsy it is. The guy found the right height and then built a new mount out of ebony. I simply used a piece of wood and wedged it under the manifold. This made a huge change in the soundstage and overall quality of the system.
Tim

Yes frogman & CT0517 on a John Deere, what nice illustration of Americana seen the other way :-) It shurely tunes bass sensitivity, although only in a limited interval range...
Regarding "spit", isn't what most lay people (ie. the non-blowing family members too) think it is. It's mainly distilled vapour from the lungs, with maybe a bit of sulfur molecules here and nitrogen mol. there. But not much spit, I think. At least not anymore after one played two or three years.
I call my baritone sax my personal distillery. But the bowed neck (?) of a bass clarinet works already nicely as such.
Regarding trombone: This is a really great instrument! (And - ha! Ray Anderson will play november 11 in our concert program! :-) The instrument is extremely powerful in a seductive way, a lot of colours and expressive. Must be fun to play with this huge tool-box.
It's funny you mention this aspect, of first getting the fundament right, the rest then falling in place: If I'm asked about what defines the quality of a well set up ET2 (or even more a ET2.5) it is the "full-range" sound from the *lows* up, surrounded by a lot of air in the bass (first): Bass ambience. Yes, it's also sublime upper ranges, but it starts with a lucid, airy bass range with a high resolution of bass timbre & pitch.
It sounds "correct" by itself while not sounding tight-assed NFB correct.

@flemke: I agree! These are gradually more consequent and less reversible ways of what my cardboard wedges underneath the manifold/bearing do.
The wood option might create a more stiff but more vibration conducting, but less absorbing pathway than cardboard.
I might try a hardwood wedge someday. I like tweaks to be as reversible, low mass and "elegant" (not necessary in the visual aspect ;-) as possible.

Chris, yes!, ear protection mufflers over ear plugs. May not be audiophile approved, but effective. Actually, my tractor is a Husqvarna GT48XLS. Love the thing. I suppose that after so much time worrying about the micro level of woodwind spring tension and tonearm resonances, I find the visceral experience of dirt, gasoline fumes and engaging that rear-wheel-differential a welcome change of pace :-)

In answer to your question: it is rare the professional grade woodwind instrument that does not require fairly extensive "set-up" even when brand new; including spring tension. Some manufacturers are more careful about releasing instruments in good playing condition than others. As audiophiles know very well, there is good and then there is GOOD when it comes to setup; a new instrument will inevitably require a visit or two to a first-rate technician. I have actually learned to do quite a bit of set-up work myself because, frankly, it's almost impossible to pay someone enough to do the kind of really fine adjustments that make an instrument feel mechanically "one's own".

Your comments about bass-management are spot-on. I completely agree with you about the importance of getting the bass right and there is, likewise, an expression among musicians that "everything starts from the bass up". IOW, get the tuning and balance of the bass instruments correct and everything else is much more likely to fall into place musically. The best orchestras (like the best stereos) have bass sections that play with the same clarity of timbre and litheness of the upper instruments, and produce sounds that are not simply low-frequency muck with no air around individual instruments.

Regards.

Hi Tim
regarding the "wedgie" :^) - A while back I did put one piece of Oak temporarily on the counterweight side to hold up the just installed damping trough. To allow the adhesive to set. One loses functionality of the VTA when you do that.

I found big differences between ET 2.0 (.5) mounted on

1) Wood plinth with the aluminum plate - in this case my own plinth birch/plywood (70 lbs), and the Jean Nantais plinth 100 lbs.
2) Acrylic or some other hard material that required use of the aluminum plate to keep it from marring the surface.
3) Mounted naked without the plate - Metal spikes direct on aluminum, brass, other similar material.

1 is the worst by far, and 3 is the best - to my ears. Also I can grab the manifold and move the Verdier table on its pneumatic suspension with it and not cause a shift. Its very firm. On the Jean Nantais table the armboards are replaceable and like the motor/platter mounts are separated from the main plinth with a void (air space)by design. The next step for me was to try a different material armboard with the ET2. Add this to the project bucket list.

Imo - the aluminum plate was a business decision by Bruce (a good one) to allow mounting on different tables. Most VPI tables had acrylic plinths so would fall within (2) above. The spikes could be filed down in this case to allow for direct mounting. I am curious if you are still using a VPI Classic with the wooden plinth and plate ? Good that the wedgies worked for you and you are happy with it.

Also regarding the VTA which the wedgie defeats. On the general analog forums here there are obviously two camps with those that like to play around with VTA alot and those that just set it at the "middle gound" and "forgetaboutit". This is true with the ET2 as well. Some have even removed the spike system and locked/tightened the VTA down so it can not be used. The post from Banquo363 earlier in this thread of the ET2 he bought was an example of this.
My 2 cents.
Cheers