Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Hi all - interesting bits & pieces!
Ct0517: interesting to hear more from internal design parameters of Bruces bearings. Some time I'll make photographs of my wiring etc.
Dover: The wire experiences are very interesting, as they are real findings. I'm not convinced however that the reason for the RF issue is solid core or silver, it could be the insulation environment of the wires affecting HF reception too, or the smaller wire diameters. As always the observations are true, the causes sometimes can be more complex than expected.
Were the silk litz wires individually isolated (HF litz) or just the whole bunch? (Besides HF detection / diode-property could also be a cold soldering joint, but I don't suppose that).
My turntable still has the original alu plinth (not too long anymore), but the motor is fed by batteries and the tt as such has no connection with the mains when running. grounding a "raw" alu plinth surface is a PITA...
The Deccas by definition have each channel ground connected ("matrix" summed through the vertical coil). So the ground loop is there for the small EM-field buggers to sneek behind and find. Luckily they oversee the possibilty under certain circumstances - but which? Hum is a dark asian martial art, teached under monumentally wound trees and learned by the nasty little buggers. There is some hope though in the light swords of master Yoda...
Your check list will be very helpful for many in trouble! Like a friend who messed up the ground connection on his new, outstanding phono stage, complaining about everything except his wiring arts.
- Generally, I find that one considerable advantage of low impedance MCs is that they don't need screening through bypassing / dumping external EM-fields through their low impedance.
It's certainly a drawback that exactly the type of cartridge that is more sensitive to capacitive loading - and therefore the sound of the dielectric too - needs screened interconnects. IMO & IME screening doesn't help the sound quality except for eliminating potential hum.

Pegasus -
The copper litz I used was the same wire as used in the Sumiko headshell wires - each of the +R -R +L -L legs consisting of multi stranded litz - each strand within the bundle being individually insulated with silk. This ran from the cartridge pins to the side of the TT and was soldered directly into a very short pair of stripped ( unshielded ) MIT MI330- total loom was about 15" to phono. Also I did not have the arm grounded either. No hum or noise with Shure V15vxmr or various LOMC's. Like you I am not a fan of shielding signal wires where possible.
Is your TT chassis & platter grounded ? If so how ?

Pegasus - Generally, I find that one considerable advantage of low impedance MCs is that they don't need screening through bypassing / dumping external EM-fields through their low impedance.

+1

Dover - Also I did not have the arm grounded either. No hum or noise with Shure V15vxmr or various LOMC's.

In many talks with the fellow that made my Wire Loom a few years ago now.

He has confirmed to me that from his own professional experience/discussions with his customers; that in his opinion air bearing tonearms provide a level of isolation that pivot arms can not match. He has not had one customer with a pivot arm be able to use a loom like this. He makes similar looms for pivot arm customers; but they plug into the back of the pivot arm hub and there is a faraday cage the last foot or two near the phono stage. Depending on the design of the preamp/ phono. My preamp sits to the immediate right of the TT on the next rack. I sit beside the preamp. (hence no need for remote) . The design of the preamp/phono has the phono to the back right. If it was on the left I could have used wiring about a foot shorter.

Just sayin...

also
Regarding shielded cables, I still own some Purist Audio Venustas phono cables.
They are nice cables and are well made. On the "audiophile perception" used market, they are worth as much as a used base ET2 in decent shape.
With that very small phono signal, once you have made it work good "naked" you realize (can hear) what all that material in the cables is doing to the sound in a comparison after - in your own system.

What' s that you are asking ?

the Venustas ...how did they sound in comparison ?

In my room sounded "sweeter", like adding a little sugar on top, but with also a perceived smaller pipe of sound.
Hey - not a bad thing at all really ...a little sweeter .. right ?
I happen to be someone who takes my morning coffee black. I'm pretty sure that someone who takes a double - double coffee will like something else better.
Afterall ... all is fair, as far as what you want to use for rope with this Audio Hangman Game .... right ?

And remember the Cables Forum at Audiogon has almost 9400 separate threads

11-04-15: Ct0517
Pegasus - Generally, I find that one considerable advantage of low impedance MCs is that they don't need screening through bypassing / dumping external EM-fields through their low impedance.

+1

Just to add, for those who will be attempting the James Bond maneuvers; use a higher signal / noise MM or other cartridge if possible. If you can make that one work, the MC will be a breeze.

btw - any one going to go see the new Bond flick "Spectre" ? I saw "The Martian" last week.

Cheers

- ct0517: It's interesting what you quote about the wire loom. While radial tonearms have the advantage of leverage on the point where the wire exits the tonearm tube and enters the base (tube), the distance is short, and the wires are somehow uncontrollable in their movement, so they are inclined to rub / stick / jump - and this "out of sight". The latter problem is nonexistent in tangential arms, if the wires are properly arranged. Thales' Micha Huber prefers *very* thin wires (ca. 0.07mm), probably to have the arm movement as free as possible. If this is necessary "even" with radial arms, not even a trace of a problem will remain regarding freedom of movement will remain with such wires for tangential arms either. IMO even two twisted 0.15mm wires, carefully arranged, do not create a problem.
- Dover: The silk wires are interesting, as these have much more electrostatic "field" surface covered with natural insulation than the compared solid core wire, this might (on sinister or twisted paths) affect RF sensitivity...
Somehow a "better" insulation with thinner litz wires should be "capable" of better radio reception :-/ ;-) In this case: The opposite!
Isn't reality from time to time baffling us?
Actually it's more of a surprise if we actually and really *know* something for sure.
- Decca: I had a first try yesterday with a artisanally rebuilt Decca, in the Garrot tradition. Yes, it's still a bit of a hassle concerning hum and screening. My 1.25m unscreened solid core wires are too long, but the hum with one phono stage we compared yesterday was quite acceptable even in my suboptimal situation (the Lehmann Audio Black Cube).
The first results are extremely impressive - in a truly musical way. This cartridges liquidity, high resolution, ambience retrieval (not 1:1 = big spaces) and grainfree transparency is *hugely* impressive!
Yes, there is a slight upper mid forwardness (but still in the range of "realistic") and yes, there is a certain upper limit in tracing (now, in my present setup), which is slightly modulated by the very low horizontal LF resonance (not yet damped enough). I will experiment with different spring / counterweight settings.
Still my rebuilt Koetsu Black is - as yet - more general purpose, and extremely natural too, and as yet it traces better.
- Phono stages, in short: The Black Cube is good enough by far to show off the superb qualities of the Decca. It seems to sound better on MM than MC and it's good. The Lehmann was a trace gray on MC, but well organised, generally transparent, dynamically stable and transparent. I had some issues with the Koetsu on high level historical horns (on fff).
. The same issue on blasting horns did arise with an austrian phono stage from pure dynamics. This one was very good, transparent and open, with very good stage in all dimensions. The bass was very good too, and it was fuss free in setup. (It costs around or below 1000$)
. The real stunner was an older LFD MM0, same circuit as the LFD Mistral and later basic LFD phono stages (but with a much beefier power supply). While I had a big issue with some intermittent RF signals ( ;-), probably radar, it was truly superb in timbre, agility, space, musicality and dynamics with a very natural, open bass. My feeling is that the LFDs phono stages might be considerably underrated in the press.
. My Audio Synthesis Passion phono had probably an issue with the supply connections, resulting in a not typical slightly opaque and undedamped quality in the bass, and a slight haze. The Passion Phono was still very transparent and true to instrument characteristics with wide and high stage, depth was a bit shortened probably by the mentioned issue. Generally and over long years this is a superb Phono stage.