Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

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.

Hi Chris,
Bruce's I Beams arrived today!  Contrary to what I previously advised, when I removed my single, spring beam it did have some type of damping material on either side of the spring. What appear to be small rectangular pieces of plastic or rubber.
I started by attaching the new, triple spring beam.  Very nice improvement and I detected no tracking issues.  I listened for a while and then swapped for the double spring beam.  While not huge, the triple spring had audibly tighter bass.  I put the triple spring beam back on and played some very dynamic stuff which revealed no tracking issues.  Finally, I dug out my ancient Shure cartridge test record.  It has several bands to test Trackability.  Again, no tracking error detected.  Soooo, at least on my rig the triple spring works the best.

I would not have believed such seemingly small tweaks could bring such huge rewards.  I have increased air pressure moved the weights out to almost the 6 position and installed the new springs.  Each of these changes brought significant improvement.  

I can't thank you enough for all the suggestions.  You have helped me bring my system to a whole new level.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not comment on the overall quality of your ET forum.  I have read many audio forums over the years.  Many often degenerate into arguments over whether tubes are better than transistors, belt drive beats direct drive, or even politics.  Not so your forum, just honest observations and tips to help contributors and readers find true enjoyment from their music.
Harry
P.S. Tubes are better.😉🎶

P.P.S.  Chris,  I didn't respond to your blu tac question.  I didn't notice any deadening with blu tac on the single spring plank. Having said that, with three springs and no blu tac things tightened up further.  This setup is, however, ruthless.  If it's a bad recording it's really bad.  Bright recordings are VERY bright.  But muddy recordings are very muddy too.