Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Richard
Yes i have two twisted silver wires running left and right of the tonearm. They are mounted to the tube via three very small pieces of double sided adhesive foam strips, to hold the wires and prevent them from touching the metal arm tube. They "exit" the arm connection bending a bit up and then down in a wide radius to the plinth, where they are supported again with an adhesive foam pad. And there is a separate ground wire to one of the arm screws.
With careful wiring dressing the arm is completely free in movement, and very sensitive to the smallest lateral imbalances, as it should be.

Pegasus et al

have u considered using a DIY Faraday cage for the last part of the wire loom - the part that doesn't affect the spindle movement right after the wire loop to where the wires go into your phono.

A sample Faraday cage recipe. For around wires.

1) Small teflon tube.
2) Larger teflon tube around smaller tube.
3) Brass / copper around wires to which a ground cable is attached at the end furthest from the phono.
4) Finish off with attractive audiophile sleeving :^) - optional.

The cage will capture all the crap and send it to the ground wire that you attach to your preamp/phono ground.

This is good option if your rack/gear setup design does not allow for the James Bond maneuvers I discussed in my previous post. :^)

Chris, that is exactly what I did . It helped a great deal with MM's which tended to have grounding issues although not nearly as severe as with the Decca, but with the Decca it is still a problem. MC's have never been a problem. For anyone who is interested, Michael Percy (website) stocks all necessary items including Teflon tubing, copper mesh and sleeving.

Pegasus - a few suggestions for hum

TT Checks :
Check the chassis/motor earthing on your SL1210- is it earthed to the wall ?
If so, then earthing to pre will create ground loop.
Check for continuity between TT earth and spindle to ensure platter is earthed. If not then there is an internal earth lead in the TT not connected.

Personally I've always got lowest noise by earthing the TT chassis/platter/motor through the power cable. If the TT chassis etc is earthed to the preamp you are putting noise into the phono ( assuming a single ended system ).

Arm Checks :
Unplug the phono cables/earths etc from the pre.
Check for continuity between your tonearm earth and the earth on your Decca phono cable with the arm not plugged into anything. If it is continuous then you will have an earth loop if you connect both the tonearm earth and signal cables to preamp. It is a long time since I had a Decca, but if I recall correctly some had the body and signal earth strapped at the cartridge end.

If the tonearm earth is truly separated electrically from the cartridge signal earths, then I would take the arm earth to the chassis and wall rather than the preamp. This is because any noise picked up by the tonearm earth would be dumped into the signal path in a single ended phono if you connect the tonearm earth to the phono pre.

ET2 Wiring :
My experience with single stranded silver wire was bad. Started picking up local radio stations and all sorts of rf. Twisting the wires helped but did not eliminate the rf.
I eliminated the rf completely by going to a silk copper litz wire. Even without twisting it in pairs there was no rf.
In both cases the wiring was continuous between cartridge and phono input.

Hope thats some help.

-
Frogman - as u r a New Yorker, I wanted to mention I was very touched last night watching the NY Mets - KC Royals baseball game; when the camera focused on Billy Joel and the PA system played "Piano Man" with everyone singing.

What class !

Go Mets Go - those damn Royals took out our Toronto Blue Jays..... :^(

*****

Pegasus
Yes I have two twisted silver wires running left and right of the tonearm.

Another example of how the ET2 design allows you to be inventive and ingenious with the wiring. In this case Pegasus a picture would be worth a thousand words.

Dover....Started picking up local radio stations and all sorts of rf. Twisting the wires helped but did not eliminate the rf......

Attention Attention. We seem to picking up radio and RF.

Immediately invoke 007 maneuvering. and while at it please bring up that Faraday cage up from the vault as a backup.

This seems to be a very persistent strain Sounds like disco

(love the Bee Gees btw)

:^)