Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

That’s great Brad! When you get it re-assembled, make sure the stylus is tracking directly straight down the imaginary centerline aligned with the platter’s bearing spindle (not to the left or right of the centerline or even slightly diagonal) and move the weights out on the I-beam as far as possible even if you have to remove some weight to hit your tracking force (VTF) target. Do not put to much torque on the screws that tighten the arm base to the armboard as this can warp the base.

It is good to get the platter completely level but the only real way to level the arm is to use a test or other LP with blank sections where the second or third track would be and at the fifth track (the two points where you would measure the cartridge alignment with a pivoting arm) and try to get it leveled to where the stylus does not try to wander toward the center of the LP or away toward the edge at these two positions. When you get it close, you will find that even the slight tension of the wiring coming out of the end of the arm will create enough force to influence the arm's movement. Try to minimize that. It takes some doing, but will pay big dividends in sound quality.

Dave

Dave,
 Thanks for the tips!  Using the supplied alignment guide, I feel like I have it set pretty good. I will not be able to do any critical setup or listening till I get the table out of my shop. The SOTA table is to big to fit on my audio rack, luckily the SOTA came with a large heavy duty rack, but it needs some work.
I think I need to adjust the arm somehow. The larger end of the cuing tube is slightly in the way of letting the arm come down into the lead-in, it lands in the start of the first track, not in the lead-in.
-Brad

Consider yourself lucky to have that alignment gauge, Brad. I never had one and had to get creative to set the trajectory.

Re: the queuing problem, did you get the joint pushed back on the spindle far enough?

Dave

Hey Brad,
Also check for obstructions in the airline and nipple feeding the body of the manifold housing.
Dave

It’s always preferable to eliminate obstacles between nipples and the mani folds of our bodies...

Fumbling around (...) with air bearing arms, also of other makes makes things appear simpler than they seem:
It’s simply a question of turning the arm around the mounting hole to get the exact desired travel, as defined by the lift bar. It may look slightly twisted though, but that’s the correct way. (You might correct a bit with pulling the end travel "hood" pushed over the bar... a bit)
But basically the travel is set by turning the arm around the single mounting screw and finding the correct position.
Tangentiality then is set by adjusting the length of the arm, ie. (non) "overhang".
Actually all is very simple.

What’s less obvious is that it is important to have
c) the surface of recordings in average level,
b) the platter and platter bearing level, (maybe with a smidgen of defined tilt toward the motor, both for optimized friction or dynamic behaviour with belt drives) and
a) the arm level. With highly increasing importance:
It’s a) where the setup sensitivity of passive tangential arms differs widely from pivoting arms.
The whole mass of the arm - dynamic and static - pulls sideways with the slightest off-level.
A normal pivoting arm with tilted setup compensates gravity "error" almost completely (with only the tracking force / weight remaining). With dynamically balanced arms it cancels to 100%.

Fortunately the air bearing arm itself is maybe the best measuring device on earth for off-levelness.

Dave,
That's most likely the issue, I'll work on it!