Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Also, I'd like to thank the following people for their influence on this project:

Ct0157: for his early suggestion to have the arm & table separated
Frogman: for his insight on tonearm wire construction
Dgarretson: for supplying me with the bearing info needed for my future thread tensioning pod and the inspiration for my upcoming tonearm wire design

all of the above have been a great resource!

Slaw.
Many thanks for sharing the info on your compressor set up. Most interesting.

Also good luck with your TT project.
Just a comment on the idea of using lead shot. I have had mixed results using shot. Both in loose form and epoxy glued. In some installs it seems to create a smearing effect, however using one piece lead in sheet or rod form has always been positive. This provided it is not inserted into the energy loop we are trying to damp. That is, I have found it beneficial if the loop is laminated with lead.
As always YMMV

cheers.

Richardkrebs: Your observation is interesting, and more food for thought. I know from my experiments in using lead shot in various ways over the years that in does work to a certain extent, but one needs to be careful in the amount used while considering (as you say), the particular type of (situation) it is used in as well. In most of my listening experiments using it solely for a damping effect on top of speakers or stationary components, I've found that while it does work, too much deadens the sound in those types of applications. Since, I've found that brass works the best there. (Just the thought of lead as a substance, brings to mind (deadness), with no ability for any resonance to be controlled, just trapped and/or redirected). This is exactly the kind of thoughtful observation I was hoping to receive. Thanks, your thoughts are very welcome.

Richardkrebs: I think that maybe a perfect example of what you are saying and what I've experienced, can be found in the Walker tt and associated stand. The stand, from my memory, included lead as a factor. This was most likely used as a necessity to deal with the system as a whole and it's (final, sonic) needs. (Maybe, with the inferiority of any stand, at the time, in order to effectively deal with such a well thought out, heavy design), they may have felt that deadening was superior to any other (systems) available then.

I just realized, here we are on the ET thread... and now, in my responses, I've introduced brass, lead , Walker...anyone see the connection?

From my memory, Bruce Thigpen had a working relationship with Bob Dilger on the Mapenoll, the ET arm was part of this project and then the basis for the Walker arm, then Pierre Spray (Mapleshade) had an association with Bob and apparently the folks at Walker (look at their similar racks and wire designs) It really comes full circle.. (in no particular order)

Slaw
In my experience using solid lead never over damps the structure provided it is adhered to the structure with a glue that is of equal or higher hardness than the structure. Do not use glues like Ados!
Using lead in this way actually increases the vividness or presence of the sound.
Try a small sheet of your chosen plinth material.
Listen to it thru a stethoscope by tapping it with something hard.
Now epoxy glue a sheet of lead to the parent material. Try the tap test again.
You will likely hear a sharper but much shorter "Tic". Think of speaker waterfall plots here, we want rapid dissipation of the energy.
IMO the same applies to TTs as well.
Next load another sheet parent material with a bag of lead shot. Tap test again. It will likely not be as sharp but will be a longer slurred sound. I think that the lead shot actually rattles and this is what you are hearing.
Some years ago I made a TT stand.
The vertical colums were 2" ID aluminim tubes. I tried filling these with sand, lead shot and a combination of both. Finally used solid lead rods inside the tubes. This was easily superior to the other iterations.
Cheers and good luck with the project!