Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners



Where are you? What mods have you done ?

I have been using these ET2's for over 9 years now.
I am still figuring them out and learning from them. They can be modified in so many ways. Bruce Thigpen laid down the GENIUS behind this tonearm over 20 years ago. Some of you have owned them for over 20 years !

Tell us your secrets.

New owners – what questions do you have ?

We may even be able to coax Bruce to post here. :^)

There are so many modifications that can be done.

Dressing of the wire with this arm is critical to get optimum sonics along with proper counterweight setup.

Let me start it off.

Please tell us what you have found to be the best wire for the ET-2 tonearm ? One that is pliable/doesn’t crink or curl. Whats the best way of dressing it so it doesn’t impact the arm. Through the spindle - Over the manifold - Below manifold ? What have you come up with ?
128x128ct0517
Hi Chris! I tried making photographs of the wiring - but the spot is too dark, and the flashlight messes things up – but I'll try again.
- It's funny you mention that (even) increasing vertical mass by minimizing & shifting the counterweight out on the I-beam improves bass. Ie. moving the vertical resonance down from a frequency above 12 Hz in many cases. Because "too low" resonance is much more a problem with vertical resonance, not lateral, as LP rumble is mainly a vertical problem – and you hear even there that lower is better. I don't doubt this!
How much less of a problem is a really high *lateral* mass within a certain safety range (not below 2-3Hz resonance)!
(Except that down there is a problem with magnetic flux with some MM and/or MI? cartridges I suspect and found - not with MC.)
- I think the quote of "lateral forces are .1 gm. compared to .2 gm on a conventional arm" refers to the forces exerted by wiring stiffness and skating forces, not to off-levelness of the arm.
If one doesn't want to exceed 0.2g lateral force one needs to set up the arm to a level precision of less than 0.2mm over a 100mm travel! It's no problem to level the arm as such - but the wire may exert a "correcting" force for an off-level arm, and changes this sideways force at a different place than where it was level. A bit of a case of luck with the original cabling, or wandering setup of the turntable base.
- The increased FM modulation with radial tracking goes back to the dynamically varying friction which dynamically varies skating force with modulation, different radius, different pressing / vinyl surface, and different aerosol deposits on the vinyl. With the straightline trackers are always tangential except LF resonance, off-levelness or other reasons for a slightly off-tangential cantilever. But this error angle is always much lower than with conventional radial arms with strong offset angles. 
- This absolute offset angle is really much lower with the Thales arms, specially with the newest, the Thales Easy.
Hi Pegasus - I think I missed my calling. I am amazed by the physics that is happening with my turntable setup. Here I went, and became a consultant involved in a field, Business/IT, that was so new and exciting some 35-40 years ago. Who knew back then that it would be ever and always changing; so much so, that if you did not stay current, even for a few years, you become obsolete very fast.
  
You can't change Physics. Many have tried. Some have even tried with the ET2.

:^0

I happen to come across this Bruce Thigpen '07 interview in a Machine Design publication. It has some nice insight into Bruce and his products.

My lifelong fascination with audio and sound reproduction resulted in the start-up of Eminent Technology in 1982. Unfortunately, 1982 was also the year the compact-disc player came along. And so it appeared that our first product, a high-end, air-bearing phonograph tonearm, wasn't going to keep the lights on indefinitely. Still, the demand for high-tech, high-end record players never disappeared entirely.

8^0

In the article Bruce gives good info on how dipole speakers work, and the reason for their bass limitations. There is also good info on how the rotary woofer works.  

Enjoy.

here is the link 

http://machinedesign.com/archive/good-vibrations-0

Thanks Chris, interesting info from Bruce, a very talented, clever, and creative engineer. Why his LFT-8b loudspeaker isn't more widely known and owned is a mystery to me.
Bdp24
Why his LFT-8b loudspeaker isn’t more widely known and owned is a mystery to me.

Hi Eric
Well imo..they sure don’t have any WAF. He should make a white wood version maybe, sort of like the jacket the assistant in that article is wearing. :^)

I think without the grills they are the coolest looking speakers I have ever owned. Others would say ....huh ? those are speakers ? Sound comes from them ? Regretted selling mine.
As far as I know from a few years back the LFT8 speakers have always been in demand with a backlog when ordering?