Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

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. 

Quite the story on your special CAT SL1 Harry. Thanks for sharing. Your preamp is a keeper, and I think you will be between a rock and a hard place if you bring another preamp in. I have a story about a preamp too, and find it very ironic after your story.

When I went to audition an ARC Sp11 MKII, some 20+ years ago, the owner selling the SP11 also had a CAT SL-1 in the room. He had just bought the Sp11 MkII on a local audio website. I know because I had missed out on it, but was surprised to see it for sale again so soon. I wasn’t happy that he had raised the price couple hundred, but I probably would never see one again, so I went to see and hear it. One of my preamps at the time was the ARC Sp8 for a number of years, so I brought it along. Long story short. We went back and forth with the 3 preamps listening to music for a few hours. Thinking about it now, isn’t it amazing that complete strangers can do this together ?

Now I know he was not sure if he really wanted to sell it (one reason the session lasted so long); but what was he going to do with two preamps? I ended up going home with it. I sold the sp8 at a later date that year. The Sp8 price has doubled since. There is a real following for that thick sounding Sp8 preamp.

Now the thing about the ARC SP11MKII. We were running it that day in full featured mode where all the features/controls "circuits" are in play. All those circuits can be bypassed with flick of a switch and run in ARC’s hot rod mode. It’s a different beast when run in this mode. Plus it has adjustable gain on a dial, separate from the level/volume. ARC still don’t offer that anymore. I have trialed with some pretty good preamps since, but none have sounded better. So still have it. I consider the SP11 MKII and the CAT SL-1 among those very special Audio Products. I discovered Bruce used an SP11 when he tested out our Acutex.

Also
I am of the opinion after my experiences with trialing other preamps and balanced designs; that if something is designed right and executed well - the single-ended circuit can in fact sound better than balanced because fewer parts are being used. You do have to be more anal with your cable setup, positioning, grounding.

That SP20 you mentioned looks interesting, but you know... I am getting some not great vibes from ARC just from the communication aspect, or lack of, with Kalvin at ARC over the last year. All replies have come back not as Kalvin, but as general ARC Customer Service with not much help except "look in the manual". Not the company in this regard it once was. Used to be able to ring up Leonard or Kalvin, or email, and get a schematic or ask a question. I think those days are gone with the new ownership.

Good morning Chris,
Nice story about your preamp.  These are some of the adventures that make this hobby so much fun.  As you probably are aware ARC was acquired be the huge Sonus Faber conglomerate and it appears their services (and prices) are being affected accordingly.

i have communicated with Bruce and he is making up two new I Beams for me.  One with two springs and one with three.  He was a little skeptical of three springs and had concerns it "would not last."  

In in my impatience, last evening I pressed a small blob of blu tac where the beam attaches to the bearing tube.  It stiffened the spring significantly and I heard a substantial improvement. Lower, tighter bass, more defined images, darker background and far better decay.   Perhaps it was the mood and the wine but I found a big improvement.  I'll let you tonight whether it was real or imagined.
Harry

Well Chris, it was not imagined, blu tac tightened things up.  Of course it's the same wine.  Bruce says the new I Beams are on the way.  I'll leave you alone until they get here
Harry.

Hi Harry

it was not imagined

This is not one of those audio tweaks that has audiophiles divided on forums on whether it works or not. It can not be imagined as we are making actual physical changes to the firmness of the I Beam, and also changes resonances. Trust me you will not be imagining things when you attempt the Triple Leaf Spring I Beam.

The Blue Tac does go against design - along with making things firmer it is also dampening / deadening from my experiences, so I would be very interested in finding out how it changes when you insert the actual double leaf spring I Beam that Bruce is sending you. I am a big stickler to staying with design and getting the most out of the designers intentions. With that Bruce told me years ago...." Yeah go ahead and load up the I beam with as much weight as you can ....as close to the air bearing as possible ....see what happens.... at some point you will bottom out the bearing."
So he is all for experimentation. :^)

I was going through some trying times and audiophilia nervosa was safe and helping me deal with things. So I got the extra weights from the car tire shop and molded them. They throw the old ones out so they were free. The look on their faces when I took a few was priceless. The same look the Wal Mart employee gave me when I bought the local store out of Blue Tac to fill the hollow Pillars of the VPI TNT to ........see what would happen.

Regarding Bruce’ comments.

He was a little skeptical of three springs and had concerns it "would not last."

Yeah, I mentioned earlier that tracking will be difficult but...... IMO, you still need the triple I beam so that you can personally get to understand what the limits of tracking are in your setup. fwiw - I am of the mindset and believe, not just for this hobby but all of them; in going a little past the limit to see what can be done. As long as you are not hurting anything, you can always come back a bit. In this case maybe settling on the double spring I Beam. I am using the double spring w/out damping right now.

I stopped drinking wine. I think the protein in it was keeping me up in the middle of the night. So beer and the occasional whiskeys now.