Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

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 

Hi Raul,

Thanks for the feedback. I am grateful for your helpfulness to me over the years on the MM thread. I still enjoy my Empire 4000D/III in my vintage system, as well as the other MMs I picked up, many of which were recommended by you.

You are correct, the statement you quoted from my earlier post is poorly stated. What I intended to say was that as my system improves, I feel that I can hear more of what the ET can ultimately do, and, perhaps my system has not yet caught up to the sound quality this arm can provide, i.e. it never seems to be the "weak link". Thanks for keeping me straight.

Thanks also for your thoughts on my component selection. Certainly not the visually-flashiest equipment around, but the older, often more-utilitarian looking, but time-proven SOTA pieces from Jim Thiel, Dave Reich, and Charles Hansen always make great sound for me.

Regarding the RELs, I have had them for several years and always set them at the lowest possible crossover point (A1) and at a very conservative volume. The big Thiels don’t need any bass enhancement, but loading the room with the REL’s LF sound pressure seems to improve imaging and openness in my system.

One thing I think is spectacular and unique to REL is the high-level input fed from the system’s amplifier(s) outputs that seems to make the REL mimic the sound of the upstream components, helping it integrate better than most. Wouldn’t mind the slam of the best JL Audio offerings though ;^)

Glad to see you here on the ET thread, Raul. If you don’t still have an ET Two in your stable, why don’t you pick one up so you can join our journey to ET perfection, perhaps sorting through a few of your cartridges to clue us in on the great ones. ET Two’s would suddenly start selling for 3X+ their current price if you become infatuated with it... ;^)

Dave

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

Hi all,

Haven't posted here for a while. I acquired a local China brand air pump (FFYX which made its own air bearing tonearm and turntable), not cheap (around 600 USD), but its super quiet and cool. It provides about 4 psi to my ET2. I think I will stick with this for a little while.

On the other hand, my vinyl system is continuously being tweaked. While I rebuild my ET2, I got the new Aluminum arm base and clamp from Bruce, and also added the VTA dial. Still tuning.

Found a used Bright Star Air Isolation Platform and a custom made sand box for the VPI TNT, and look forward to have its current owner to ship to me.

Cheers
Eric