Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Hi Dave,

I haven't tried the Brightstar Platform by itself. When this is combined with the sand box as you can see in the thread, I like the sound. Good solid sound stage and feeling very low noise floor.

The entire platform, sandbox and TT/Tonearm came from a friend (He sold me the ET2/TNT last year, then he found this Brightstar in his store room recently and send to me separately).

His comment is that with the Brightstar only, its good isolation but the sound is not solid (he describe the sound as floating, I hope you know what it means :P ). He is actually the one suggested me to add a sandbox on the Brightstar and the effect is exactly as he describe to me. He mentioned he did ABC test years ago with only Sandbox, only Brightstar and both.

Working like mine is best (Sandbox on Brightstar), but if only one can be chosen, he prefers the sand box, as this give good isolation and solid soundstage. The choice of sand is also important, we went into lengthy discussion and also based on my experience playing with sand in speaker stand. I choose rather large size quartz sand (each sand is the size of rice), too fine sand actually damp the sound too deadly.

For the Dental Floss, I haven't tried it yet, I need some education on this, how to source and fit. I did compare dual belts and single belt as suggested by some veteran in the VPI forum. And I agree that I like the dual belt setup better, seems to give me more solid bass.

Best Regards
Eric

Hi Eric,

Sounds like you are off to a good start. My experience agrees with that of your friend re: the sandbox vs the air platform. If your TNT has springs vs air bladders/handballs, the air bladder under the sandbox can be of additional benefit. Your ears will tell.

Current thinking (at least my understanding of it) is that soft interfaces do indeed dissipate external vibration coming from beneath, but trap internal resonances within the component on top (wrong-way isolation vs transmission). Check out the Symposium website for further (better) explanation. I recently installed metal footers (SR MiG 2.0s) between my SACD player and Symposium Svelte metal-foam-metal sandwich-type platforms and recognize the sonic benefits of reducing internal resonance there.

It never occurred to me to consider the sand type. I used play sand that I let dry for a long while. I did place some industrial heatsinks hidden within the sand to dissuade the sand from packing and to provide additional mass. All sorts of creative ideas can come into play here.

On the floss drive, the drugstore variety of unwaxed dental floss is fine. Use the belts you have to determine the length needed. Tie it off with your best knot (check the web for suggested knots if you are so inclined) ensuring that the knot will not slip under pressure/tension. Dental floss is surprisingly strong so no worries about breaking it. Place the floss around the center platter groove. It helps to have a patient someone assist. Now, while holding the floss under slight tension, work it around the flywheel pulley while moving the flywheel outwardly to apply moderate tension as you let go. Do the same between flywheel pulley and motor pulley.Turn ’er on and see what you think.

You could even use two runs of floss positioned as your belts are now for better distribution of the load on your platter/flywheel/motor bearings, but I wouldn’t suggest trying that on your first attempt. Explicatives are probable.

In my case, the sound is much faster and my TNT lost a great deal (the right amount) of its tendency to sound fat and slow.

Cheap and not time consuming, so if you don’t prefer it little is lost, assuming no unfortunate incidents with your arm/stylus.

Best to you Eric,
Dave

Nice setup Eric 

Wish you guys were closer so we could hang out. With cold weather here soon for me, I will be spending a lot more time In My Room :^)

Dave - how much did you have to bump up the frequency on your speed controller for  the floss ?

Cheers
Chris 

Hi Chris,

I don't recall exactly, but I did have to change the setting. It is set at 58.04 FWIW. 

I did forget to include that above. What a kind and clever way to point that out :)

Best to you Chris,
Dave

Hi Dave - going from memory from many years ago I think I can see 57.90's on the SDS display window for the thread setup I had on the TNT ?

Why am I able to remember this but can't remember where I left the keys ?

Mike from VPI at the time recommended the Spider fishing line which he used. Go into the fishing store and find 15 types of Spider line.  Anyway did not have any success with fishing line or the Kevlar that I ordered in.

Eric et al - the thread/floss is a slippery slope - prepare yourself for it 

Once there - there is no return - like this tonearm. for me anyway.