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
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