Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Hi Chris! The magnet damping doesnt't work the way you describe it. What you describe is the magnet "levitating" of the Verdier (and others) by opposing magnets of same polarity.
The proposed damping works by eddy current, the same as eddy current brakes. Basically you put a magnetic circuit very close to a electrically conducting surface. The magnetic flux crossing the surface induces a current in the conductor / surface, which creates a counteracting magnetic field.
I placed a neodymium kitchen magnet (or two) on a blob of BluTak underneath and very close to the spindle. (I like my setups to be a bit messy - but reversible :-).
My wires exit the arm relatively "straight" at the end of the tonearm proper, the magnet is on the opposite side of the bearing.
The small round kitchen magnet has a magnetically conductive (steel?) "guiding" sleeve around the magnet that guides the back side pole to the front, so you have opposite poles in the center of the magnet vs. a circular opposite pole around.
In my case it works "enough", so that the arm has no high Q lateral resonance. It's probably still slightly underdamped though. Which is IMO desirable as a trade-off.
I don't have an alternative anymore, as my oil trough is leaking.

Hi Pegasus
Good to hear from you. :^)
The Verdier provides for Levitation AND Braking Action - and that is why I included the analogy. Everybody thinks about the Levitation but NO ONE discusses the braking action. 8^0

All I did was report Bruce’ findings. Not sure how he set it up.
IMO - John should also try it for himself.

I still have the trough attached but the paddle is not connected because I do not need it.

Pegasus
My wires exit the arm relatively "straight" at the end of the tonearm proper, the magnet is on the opposite side of the bearing.

Show us a picture of the wiring/magnet Pegasus.

John I would also like to see a picture of your modded Ibeam.

Cheers Chris

The magnet thing is pretty confusing. I don't know how to post pictures directly to the discussion, and I don't do the social media thing. So, I'll work on adding pics to my Audiogon identity? I'll have to work on that. Sorry. I'm not well versed in these things, but I'll geterdone tomorrow.
John

Hi Chris,
I'm about to take the plunge for Bruce's mag arm but thought I'd touch base with you first.  Over the last month + I have increased air pressure, moved weights out and added springs on the beam.  After each of these upgrades I heard a significant improvement in almost all parameters.  While I realize everything is system dependent and subjective, can you share with me what I might expect to hear going from the aluminum arm to the mag arm.  By the way I now have my system up on virtual systems.
Thanks,
Harry

Good Morning Harry

the proper thing to do if I was in audiophile mode, would be to switch my mag for the aluminum with my MC and give you direct impressions in my room. That’s not going to happen for a couple of reasons. I don’t like to fool with carts - did you know I beheaded an XV1 once ? Also I did break my loom one time - can’t blame that one on the cat. It was a hard call to make to Gene at Take Five Audio - sending him my crippled loom. Oh...and also that Aluminum Gooseneck that I sourced from NZ ....is a really tight fit. Can be a b**tch to get off.

So...

The best any of us can do on these virtual forums where we cannot visit each others rooms due to distance is make an educated guess. This is unfortunate because you have a nice airy room - and I would love to hear music in it. No question the biggest factor is the room. I believe your VTA changes will be smoother (not as pronounced), and you will hear more of what is actually in the recording, due to less resonance, as the Mag wand handles your cart better. As part of the adjustment (and there will be adjustments !!) I would think you may also need to change the crossover setting on the sub I see in your room picture. Like I said earlier; there are many ET2 original owners here on this thread, who are playing MC with their aluminum wands - but they have had to modify their ET2 aluminum wands extensively. Hope that helps a bit.

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I like analogies. Sometimes analogies are good and hit home; sometimes not so much.
Those that live in the Northern United States and Canada know the difference between summer tires, all season tires, and winter tires. If the arm tubes were tires. the Aluminum is for Summer, Carbon Fiber is All Season and the Mag is for Winter duty. Canadians in Ontario and Quebec provinces are now given discounts by their insurance companies if they are using Winter tires - during Winter :^) ....... We’re still getting ripped off.

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Bruce’ ET2 manual is based on the original 2.0 tonearm. Aluminum Wand, Single leaf Spring - MM’s were popular.

IF....

If his tonearm did not get introduced same year as CD was introduced.

If vinyl sales continued in popularity.

If there was a stronger business need for it.

Then I believe Bruce would have come out with a revised ET 2.0 (2.5) owners manual Version 2. In it, he would definitely cover off the 2.5 version for MC carts, the three arm tubes and also the use of multiple leaf springs. Also Bruce does use direct single shot wiring as well - but IMO, due to its fragility, and the fact the person getting it needs to be anal about setup - I don’t think he would discuss it in the manual.

so some thoughts over coffee. sorry for the detail (coffee kicking in) and any spelling mistakes.

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What frequency is your sub crossed over at Harry ? have you ever tried it in nearfield position ?

Cheers Chris