Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

The discussion of a musician's sense of time brings to mind a singer whose timing drives me nuts, and you hear him at many audio shows---Willie Nelson. I don't mind a singer having flexible or elastic phrasing (pulling ahead of or falling behind the pulse of the band), but he jumps so far far ahead it creates anxiety!

By the way, when you hear a recording in which the drummer (or entire rhythm section) seems to be dragging, it's not necessarily of his/their doing. In doing session work, I have found many singers to have trouble "waiting" for the beat coming towards them while over-dubbing vocals to previously recorded backing tracks, and end up "rushing". Don't blame the drummer!

Bdp24, is that called the Diana Krall syndrome ?

Frogman: If I'd live in NY or the states I'd shurely ask you for lessons on my clarinet(s). It would be fun tweaking my fingers tangentially to the holes with your help and having them (the holes) optimized by tweaking the diameters... :-).

Dover: I found your posts very interesting and I like what I'm hearing with magnetic damping - in my setup, with a small neodym magnet close to the bearing tube placed at the "backside" of the bearing, direct wiring some cms away from the bearing tube. Not tried yet the "naked" alu arm tube yet.

Setup: IMO my original ET wiring was introducing too high lateral forces. I use twisted thin Audio Consulting silver wires outside of the arm, fixed via two or three small double sided foam ahesive pads. The wires go in a light curve, with a vertical radius, L/R some cms separated, to 7cm behind the arm tube, in the middle of the travel path.
With this, the arm is a *very* precise leveling tool. It shows the slight change of levelness introduced by the level forces of the tonearm on my battery-modded SL1210 with "trick-subchassis". So I have to look for a very slow movement toward the outside at the beginning and the end, but perfect level in the mid of the LP, or mid arm travel.
Every time I heard slightly tubby bass, it was caused by an involontary change in lateral balance. Unbalanced side forces affects bass - one already has it built in with too stiff wiring.
I'll try Dovers idea of a slight overhang, this is such a delicate tweak, that it will create much smaller forces than any wrong balance setup.

Decoupled counterweight & ET: I think it is a brilliant idea to reduce the effective lateral mass - in case of rather high compliance cartridges. It makes the ET2 much more widely compatible, than the ET one was (I owned it), or most other air bearing arms, specially those with stationary outer bearing, long bearing tubes and counterweight at the opposite end.
My axe to grind is that optimizing towards a higher lateral resonance frequency than say 4-5 Hz (at least) is simply neither necessary nor improving sound. Based on the same thoughts that stand behind the Moerch DP-8 arm.
Ie. with moderate to low compliance cartridges the counterweight decoupling introduces a new (sonic) compromise instead of solving a problem. But to really hear the advantage of a rigid counterweight, one has to do a bit more fiddling with the ET2 counterweight fixing than just using BluTak to bypass the spring (which I usually did).
For high compliance - I assume - it's ingenious.
BTW I use a pressurized air bottle (rental system in Switzerland) as air supply at the moment.

Addendum: The VTA adjustment mechanism of my ET2 introduces slight (but IMO much too much) lateral imbalances when changing VTA. I assume Ct0517 will tell me that my VTA mechanism has a problem - but it was never overtightened or any thing like that, it has equal spacing around and moderate to low "clamp".
- so, after changing VTA I would *always* adjust lateral balance... :-(
- I use very small vertical cardboard wedges between arm housing and plinth to *slightly* couple the bearing to the plinth. One "outside", one on the counterweight end, underneath the damping trough. This improves stability and focus and is audible (and reversible).

- BTW I measured/listened to the energy put into the arm, arm base and plinth while playing an LP, by using a structural feedback microphone. I heard a wide-band replica of the LP signals across the whole arm structure into and including the plinth. With no audible HF roll-off "after" the bearing, it just went lower in level across the plinth, a bit absorbed probably by inertia. So much for "air bearings are inherently less stiff than radial arm bearings".
- And I heard bearing noise... like white noise, created by air turbulence of the exiting air. This has tobe put in the backside of our heads when increasing pressure on the bearing, although it's relatively constant.

09-02-15: Shfinne
The way I level is by using test record with blank track.

I can't see how to setup correctly with out one.

Hi Styrk

So you are using one of these products ?
Test Record

I note that one of the reviewers said his test record had an offset center hole. On a test record....:^(
Just saying.
Using a test record implies that you are setting up with the Et2 wiring as part of the arm and connected as you need to listen to test tones.
If you are happy with the results that's great, enjoy the music. But if you have more Rope for the Hangman in this crazy Audio Hobby of ours, I feel you can do much better with the ET2. If you really want to hear what this out of the box unique tonearm can do; you need to IMO use an out of the box method of setup and leveling.
I have said this before. I am suggesting you set the ET2 up and level without the wiring. Pull the wiring from the tonearm initially and add it later. The ET2 provides for this capability unlike any other tonearm I am aware of,

Here is the problem and/or limitation from my experiences.
The ET2 wiring loom can also be called the ET2's Achilles heel. Many have pulled out their hair trying to set it up with the wiring as part of the initial setup. This is after all the way it is done in the manual. here's the problem. The wiring affects the tonearm far more than any other tonearm I have owned. A bad wire arrangement can ruin an otherwise very good mechanical set up due to the push/ pull on the sensitive friction-less air bearing. The wiring will cause you to throw out your leveling. To prove this, set up your wiring after like I suggest, and see what happens.

Schubert used a word earlier that I really like .......Fiddle.

Fiddle is what I used to do in the early days trying to the get the wiring right, especially with different tables; some with flat plinths, others with a platter and armboard that were joined by a plinth but not on the same plane.

We can call this PITA wiring on the ET2 bad design ? but is it ? You see the the design also provides for having the ability to to reach very high musical sonics due to the ease, in adding in, a modded wire arrangement.... after you have set up your arm without the wiring. Yes without the wiring.

I realize most probably set up the ET2 with the wiring already part of the arm. Still if a newer owner is setting up the ET 2 & 2.5 with the wiring attached to it, you could end up Fiddling - alot. You could pull out a lot of hair and succumb to the rumors that this is hardest arm to setup. Assuming a clean functioning ET2, this is THE reason IMO for those that fail to set one up satisfactorily. Their Wiring Arrangement. I am willing to put money on this one.

This method of adding in the wire after allows you to make a wire arrangement that is best for your specific table and the least intrusive on the overall setup. Also FWIW and IMO .. the wiring set up discussed in the manual is just average at best, and was designed to work with VPI , SOTA, other tables in order to sell more tables. If Bruce is partnered with Harry at VPI as he was (the original TNT was designed for the ET2 ) then you want a standard basic wire setup. This was a very average set up at best. C'mon ..wire going down through the plinth to a junction box ?

So give it a try. What's to lose ?
Remove the wiring, and set up your ET2 as best as possible naked - sans wiring. Once complete with the mechanical setup and leveling add in the wiring.

A small last but important point if you attempt this...
For now you will be adding the wiring outside the armtube, and make sure you make no further adjustments to the vertical leveling screws.
Only make adjustments to the wiring arrangement itself. Once you have made the best wiring arrangement after the armtube, you can tuck the lead part of the wires into the armtube if aesthetics are that important to you.
You can also braid the wire along the armtube but keep single strands once it leaves the armtube. Braiding helps with interference (noise and hum), but it also causes binding of the tonearm wire. (this is dependent on the type of wire as well). This in fact is how my VPI JMW used to apply antiskate - with the braided wire going from the armtube to the junction box. The affect - push back - very evident with each twist. Then VPI went further and added another layer with a separate antiskate system altogether in addition to the wire.

One becomes experienced enough with the wire arrangement through personal practice. This can't be learned on the internet.
Happy Leveling