Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Just got your response and still have questions but it's very late here. I'll respond more tomorrow.  I can't resist commenting on your last paragraph, however.  My lord you are more OC than me.  I keep a sheet of green felt on top of the dust cover on my VPI HW 19 to keep the dust off the dust cover.
Cheers,
Harry

Harry - my turntable doesn’t come with a dust cover like your vpi; so I keep the parts that matter covered and just dust the rest of it as needed. I do need to come up with a better system because the kitty stole the drive system from it last month. 8^0

No dust cover?  How do you sleep at night?😰   Ok, a little hard to see from your pictures, but it looks like I just glue (super glue?) extra leaf springs to the front side of the I Beam (the side with the numbers).  I shot off an email to Bruce and told him you were the source of my inquiry/purchase.  I'll let you know results.  

I have corresponded with Bruce a couple times over the years and always found him most helpful.  BTW, my brother-in-law, also an audiophile, had occasion to visit Bruce at his home/factory several years ago while on a business trip to Tallahassee.  He said it was a most interesting visit.  

I envy you with your two listening rooms.  Mine is 1/2 of our living room so there are limits to what my wife can accept.  😢

FYI, my ET II is mounted on a VPI HW 19 (MK III I Think) upgraded with the original SAMA, TNT platter and bearing.  I use the Phorpenix Eagle and Roadrunner for speed control.  If you haven't come across these, I highly recommend them.  They keep speed on my rig locked in to within .002 RPM.

Hope  I'm not wearing you out.  I'm a retired 73 year old so I have lots of time on my hands.  I have an interesting historical note on my preamp.  If you are interested let me know.

Harry

How do you sleep at night ?

When I first discovered the silk thread/string gone, I panicked and looked at the exposed tonearm wiring. It was intact. Then I looked for the cantilever on the cart. It was still there too. Sigh of relief. She didn’t go to town on it. Door stays closed now. Never did find the silk thread .....don’t know where she dragged it to.

Sounds like you have a well setup rig Harry. I look forward to hearing of the results. Myself, I would keep the trough paddle not touching while you determine which of the I beams work best in your system with that cartridge. The triple I beam will make tracking the most difficult - least amount of damping. This is just like a car on a race track with three suspension settings. Race tracks differ as do LPs especially the eccentric ones. The theory - We are matching the I Beam action to the compliance of the cartridge; at the same changing the resonant frequency of the I Beam with the thicker leaf spring (multiple joined springs) ; to hopefully be more in sync with the less compliance cart. Your ears will tell the real story.

I owned a couple VPI’s in the past. My first ET2 came on a HW19 MKIV with the piano black finish - suspended, but no speed controller. That lead to a TNT that I owned for a few years. My current main table works much differently. The thread is applied loose and the motor delivers shots of power to keep the heavy platter rotating. If I change the speed on the motor a little, the platter speed change does not register till about 5 seconds later. That’s how little effect the motor has on the rotating platter.

Hope I’m not wearing you out.

I really like the AudioGon sharing of info during the winter. Usually on here in the morning. The caffeine kicking in is responsible for all the detail.
Until the bears that Frogman alluded to, take me away in late Spring; the schedule depends on when those pesky black flies calm down. I can deal with mosquitoes, I can deal with horse flies...but those damn blackflies ...

You have me very curious about your preamp ?

The VPI with your first ET2 was the same as mine.  Not sure if mine is a III or IV, but it is piano black, suspended with the acrylic deck and arm board.  I've toyed with the idea of replacing the springs with pucks but am concerned about footfalls with no suspension.  House has wood floors.  Sounds like a very slick bearing on your current platter.

We don't get so many black flies down here in N.C. but my father's family was all from Maine and as a kid we used to go up there for visits.  I do remember the black flies.  Not nice.

My Preamp:
I lived for many years in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.  My favorite audio shop was (and still is) in Hollywood, Fla. (Hollywood Sound),  just a couple blocks from the offices and factory for Straight Wire cable.  In fact the audio shop's owner's wife was the receptionist for Straight Wire.  One day while hanging out at Hollywood Sound I spied a used CAT SL-1 for sale and started salivating.  The SL-1 is the preamp that Straight Wire used during their formative days to develop their interconnect.  It had been modified to move the phono inputs to the left side right next to the first stage tubes of the phono stage (6DJ8's), the point to point wiring had been replaced with Straight Wire and the high/Low switch had been bypassed.  There maybe other mods but those are the only ones I recognized.

To make a long story longer, I bought the SL-1 and have now owned it for close to 25 years.  I have retubed from time to time and had to have the large capacitor in the power supply replaced but that's all I've had to do to it.  I have heard a lot of preamps over the years but, with the exception of a couple of ARC's (10's and 11's)  have never.been tempted to replace it.  Alas, no remote but I'm not yet so lazy or old that I must have a remote.  

Lately, I have been reading about the ARC SP 20.  Haven't heard one yet but the reviews are over the top and it has a remote.  Unfortunately, like most of the current ARC stuff, it is very expensive.  If one comes up on the used market at something I can afford I may have to jump.  I'd like to hear it first but I am very rural and I've found that auditioning in a showroom with someone else's system really doesn't tell all you need to know.