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 ?
128x128ct0517
I should note that if anyone living in So. California is interested in acquiring a Timeter aridyne, the guy I bought mine from had 3 more for sale. I have no idea regarding their condition, but unless the motor is toast, everything else is more or less replaceable. You can pm me for his number or go to craigslist to see his ad (he's in orange county).

Its been said here before that keeping the pump in the garage is not good thing due to the big differences in humidity with the house inside. You are challenging its active drying system so would be interested to hear how it holds up. Let us know if you see any drops of moisture in the in-room bowl/regulator. (Ct0517)

Understood, but bringing it inside would serve as my wife's daily reminder that I'm not 'normal'; we don't want that.

Per the owner's manual, I have an additional water trap a meter below my arm. So far no water has made it to the trap--fingers crossed.

Yes, the 2000 is feeding the arm and my pneumatic platform. The latter is too good to leave out of the party. So far I've used only one tap (with a splitter) to feed both. No problems that I can detect. But one of these days I'll run separate lines for each and see whether that's better. The 2000 has 3 taps, so might as well use them. The problem is that doing so will require running another 40 ft of tubing through my kitchen. That's not normal--see above.
Banquo363 - Understood, but bringing it inside would serve as my wife's daily reminder that I'm not 'normal'; we don't want that.

This is a niche hobby and NORMAL, imo is very subjective and relative to the situation.

For example in this comparison ....

What shall we consider more normal here ?

1)
The Air pump placed strategically in the master bedroom "double closet" right next to the wife's sexy red shoes.
A clear transparent tube line following the phone line along the wall hidden from view.
Entering the music room as one aquarium tube.

OR

2)

THIS

All together now ...Holy Moly !

Photo courtesy of

Leo Yeh - Munich Show 2015

The 2000 has 3 taps, so might as well use them.

Reserve the third line and save it for yourself ....for when the music takes your breath away.....
Ct0517
Thanks for your response. I have my Silentaire compressor in another room and also wanted a turnkey operation so I could turn it on & off from my listening room. The solution is one of the wireless ( rf not infrared ) remote switched outlets that you can buy online. Press a button on the remote and on goes your compressor. Another press and it's off. If you have an in line pressure gauge near your et-2 you can tell when the compressor is on and off. Just make sure that your compressor is within the specified operating range of the remote.
The way the ET-2 is normally wired has always been an issue for me when deciding how best to mount it on my TT. Because the tonearm wires are soldered directly to the RCA jacks in the RCA box or mounting plate and the wire is supposed to be fed through a hole in the armboard to create a loop, installing or removing the spindle or manifold requires desoldering the wires and pulling them out of the hole. This is a major PITA and doesn't make installation an easy process.
While I realize that adding additional connections to the audio chain may have negative consequences, this may be balanced against making installation, removal and adjustment an easier process.
My solution was instead of soldering the tonearm wires to the RCA jacks, I instead soldered them to a 4 pin Lemo plug ( the same one used by VPI on their Memorial Tonearms ). I obtained a VPI Tonearm junction box which I mounted to the top of the plinth with Velcro tape. It was then easy to mount and align the mounting post to my armboard without worrying about the manifold-spindle assembly. I then mounted the manifold assembly to the mounting post & aligned it. I plugged the Lemo connector into the junction box & it works fine. I can unplug the Lemo connector & remove the whole manifold assembly in a minute. While there are the additional connections created by using the Lemo connectors, the convenience in mounting & adjusting far outweigh any sonic degradation for me. YMMV.
Bigalt,
I run the wire straight out of the arm tube, looped under the bearing spindle/armlift rod to a teflon block on the the side of the TT (this is mounted behind the lift spindle and halfway along to minimise wire tension when playing. The wire does not enter the bearing spindle at all. I also use a silk insulated copper litz which is much less springy than the plastic/teflon insulated tonearm wires like Cardas etc.
There are no connectors at all between cartridge pins and RCA/phono connectors. If you back the preamp up to the side of the TT you can get the total loom down to around 16".
For maintenance all I have to do is unplug the phono and undo 1 screw holding the teflon block and the whole arm tube comes off complete with wiring loom and cartridge.