Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Dear @dlcockrum : """  or, most recently, improvements in my system that show I have not yet heard the full sonic capability of this arm.... """

I don't know which kind of system improvements you made it but what you experienced can't be attribute for that system audio link name it tonearm. What about the Orpheus that's a great performer that with system improvements always shows it at best conditions.

When we make system improvements and we can listen a better system quality performance that speaks, before any other audio system link, a lot about the quality of the source ( cartridge. ) and speakers and from here we can " figure/imagine " how all the other system links conttribute to it.

Btw, I know very well your speakers, as a fact I like it Thiel, your Classé units and the Krell. I owned the DR-7 and DR 3-VHC and had in my place the Thiel 7 and that Krell too.

I don't know if you already made the REL subs set up for it can works only from 80hz down its capacity low bass frequency where in this set up the Thiel's be running as " satelite " ones.

Anyway, I made my points.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Hi Dave

your ET2 set up looks textbook good :^) , with the obvious wiring, air tube connect mods over stock to improve on the original design, which tried to satisfy the tonearm being mounted on practically any turntable - other than a very lightly sprung one. All it needs is one drilled hole for the spiked mounting plate.

As we know and discussed here there are many TNT setups with ET2 arms. The TNT was originally designed for the ET2. There was a business collaboration between Harry and Bruce. Harry then I assume, (he can tell us otherwise if he likes) made up his own tonearm and they said goodbye to each other.

The many TNT and HW 19 VPI/ET2 setups are a reminder of this past relationship and can not be ignored. Even with Harry's marketing sense.
Kind of like that past girlfriend you still hold pictures of, and were afraid to introduce to your mother ? ....

Your attention to detail is great (I imagine for the whole room) and I really like the thread on the TNT. That thread setup on my previous TNT moved the TNT into the same league for pace and tempo with my other tables at the time. But it trumped them in musicality. Trumped them.....hah hah to my American friends. :^)

In fact my modded TNT at the time is what convinced me to eventually acquire the string drive designed turntable.

Nice pics (its unfortunate we can't link pics direct from our virtual system into threads anymore.  An excellent shot of how to properly set the weights on the I beam - where many (including the professional reviewers) go wrong IMO because they do not take time to figure out how the arm works. I am referring of course to reading the ET2 manual, or ask Bruce, or ask us here. :^)

in a nutshell **** FWFO**** fewest weights furthest out. I just made up that acronym. This FWFO gives you the highest vertical inertia (aka the BEST BASS) and is discussed in the ET2 manual. This is also "one" of the reasons the super light 420str has such outstanding bass on an ET2. Like the bass players in the group sound after drinking cappuccino.

There is of course the famous Audiogon "German" group who set their ET2's up with the most weight possible in, closest to the air bearing spindle. Long time ET2 owners know what this does to the setup. We can discuss if anyone likes. One from this German group actually makes his own tonearm now.

Cheers 

Dear @dlcockrum : As I told you, I like your system and know it. Btw, I owned  the ET tonearm and as I posted ( somewhere. ) here is a good one.

Now, even the Thiel 7s needs active subwoofers. Here you can read the main subject to add a pair of powered subwoofers in true stereo fashion where the main speakers will function as true satelite ones. You must try, that sole change transform for ever and for the better your really nice system:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/do-you-think-you-need-a-subwoofer/post?postid=310058#310058   


Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Raul,

Before reading your post in the link you supplied, I had already heard and described the "unexpected to me" influences that the dual-REL subs have on my system’s sound, perhaps using somewhat different and less precise descriptives than you do in that post.

Like you say there:
"- better quality low bass ( you can have at least one more octave ) and mid bass "
"- An improvement in the soundstage reproduction in all parameters: deep, front/side location, wide of the stage, etc..."

In my system, I would add something like:
"-an improvement in imaging, air, and a sense of infinite space around the performers and within the soundstage itself"

The other key point you bring to that post is improvement resulting from relieving the main speakers and amplifiers of the difficult lower-octave reproduction challenge. I understand this to imply introducing an external crossover into the signal path of the main system (if I am mistaken, please correct me). I do not yet do this, as it concerns me regarding tampering with Jim Thiel’s ingenius 1st-order crossover and the (extremely) low probability of my feeble speaker design skills bettering Jim’s in this regard. A mental picture of Jim turning over in his grave comes to mind (I assure everyone that I mean absolutely no disrespect or levity to Jim’s passing).

A very good friend of mine has a stratospherically high-performance and high-priced system. He recently wrote me singing the praises of the room-correction software that he acquired with/for his dual JL Audio Gotham subs. He only uses digital sources, asserting that "turntables do add a certain pleasing warmth to the sound, but are ultimately inferior in accurate high-performance sound reproduction". We agree to (strongly) disagree on this for the sake of our continued friendship.

I would think that, with the almost unimaginable capability that today’s computers have to capture, analyze, and process billions (trillions?) of data points that this would indeed be the way to go re: add-on crossovers compared to the analog domain ones I have used (the then-SOTA external crossovers provided with the Apogee Divas I set up and meticulously tuned in my installer days), but I EMPHATICALLY REFUSE TO DIGITIZE MY BELOVED ANALOG SIGNAL SOURCE!!

I submit for your consideration (very Rod Serlingish, don’t you think) that some of the improvements you attribute to implementing additional crossovers are perhaps due more to the magical effect of loading the listening room with gobs of hyper-LF sound pressure that works in effect to "relieve the ROOM of the difficult lower-octave reproduction challenge". This of course assumes (and we know what happens when we do that) that the subject amplifiers and speakers are of sufficient quality to handle the task of accurately reproducing the lower octaves of our musical content (I admit to having an extreme aversion to most organ music so I may be exposed there) .

Dave