Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Hi Guys
Been enjoying July Weather in Sept/Oct; which is ok since we never got July weather in July here this year. :^(
So still in outdoor mode floating on the water (not the air) and maybe a track session again one day if the Gestapo ever hands back the keys to me again :^(
Something about not being able to collect on Life insurance ?

Anyway - some interesting talk on achieving alignment. Got me re-juved reading.
  
Noted the suggestions for moving the ends of the spindle (Joint - aka as Gooseneck) and/or the end cap to get the stylus to drop into the lead in groove.
    
The larger newer 2.5 is built tighter and the ends of the spindle have sleeves which make the gooseneck and end cap flush with the spindle. There is only one way to mount it - tight. So if the hole that was drilled to mount the tonearm was less than perfect and you are faced with an armtube that doesn't come in to the lead in groove - the Cueing Eccentric adjustment would be probably the only way unless you are going to drill another mounting hole.

btw - Bruce used to provide the service of upgrading your 2.0 to a 2.5. You send him your 2.0 spindle and manifold and he would return a bored out 2.5 version at reasonable cost. He may still do this. 

Re: Alignment
If you are using a full plinth with no armboard, and it is going to need one hole drilled to add the tonearm; the task at hand can get more than a little daunting. Especially if you are dealing with an expensive handcrafted plinth.

After mounting the ET 2.0 , 2.5 maybe 60-70 times on 5 or 6 tables...During a Serious bout of Audiophilia Nervosa Mode years ago ....... 8^(.....I can say let's not over complicate this. We are not after all trying to mount a pivot arm.

All you need is a straight line from the middle of the spindle to the end of the platter (ANYWHERE ON THE PLATTER) This straight line should track the line (path) your stylus will take. With the air pump on make adjustment making sure your stylus will land - without it actually touching - the line on the jig. This is easiest done when your ET 2.0 - 2.5 is mounted on a standalone or pivoting pillar/pod.  

Past VPI HW19 MKIV and TNT tables with the ET2 revealed to me that the holes drilled by VPI were less than perfect. Maybe it was hit and miss with my examples ? Test your tables. Does your stylus when placed on the jig near the beginning still remain on that straight line at the end of the road ?

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Xbart - Brad - welcome to the thread.
Amazing what can be found at a US of A Garage Sale ...... EH
Real American Pickers.

Have you messed with the horizontal VTA Pillar bolts yet ?
It is my opinion that these should have come from Bruce' factory with plugs in place preventing adjustment....AND....a special section in the manual dedicated to them with the caption "for experienced users only"

I am pretty sure everyone here has used those VTA Pillar bolts in the beginning of learning setup to make the stylus "Walk The Line" - thereby messing up the ET2 VTA alignment. The only manual mention I recall is adjusting them for the tension felt in the VTA lever. This is an over sight IMO as Audiophiles will always tinker and can't leave well enough alone.
   
The mention of plugs for the VTA pillar post bolts...... reminds me of an incident this past summer involving a friends boat with a Volvo Penta i/o engine, with Holley carb. The friend had a rough running engine on this boat he bought. When we investigated we noticed someone had taken the plugs out the carbs' two metering bolts on each side, and tried to adjust them. We suspected something got messed up in their settings.
Long story short - Holleys are way too sensitive to do adjustment of the metering bolts by ear and watching the tachometer. To do it properly required the use of a Vacuum Gauge, sort of like the air pressure gauge used by the ET2. The vacuum gauge showed that the setting were way off.

Hope this post finds everyone well. Soon it will be cold and activities will commence indoors including running. My knees are taking a beating with age. I find now to run without pain I need to be running on an uphill incline so that my knees are loaded. This means treadmill. :^(

Hi Harry - read your note about v2 of the Long I Beam. Need to reach out to Bruce.

Cheers Chris

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to everyone.

Hi Chris,

Welcome home! It is nice to hear from you again.

Dave

Welcome back, Chris.  When you get snowbound you gotta get Bruce's second run long "plank".

Frogman,
Enjoyed my short sojourn with the the VDH MC-1 Special but missed the Lyra delicacy and extension I've lived with for so many years.  I did, however, decide to give VDH one more try and acquired a Black Beauty SPX.  I'm absolutely blown away by this cartridge.  Great midrange and bass of the VDH but extension and air that gives my Lyra Delos a run for its money.  I'm using the aluminum arm wand Bruce recommended for this high compliance cartridge.

Xbart - Brad - welcome to the thread.
Amazing what can be found at a US of A Garage Sale ...... EH
Real American Pickers.

Have you messed with the horizontal VTA Pillar bolts yet ?
It is my opinion that these should have come from Bruce' factory with plugs in place preventing adjustment....AND....a special section in the manual dedicated to them with the caption "for experienced users only"

Chris,
I'm been pretty much a vintage audio guy, mostly out of necessity (lack of funds) and garage sales are my main source for gear and albums.
Most of the mods suggested here are likely not in my budget.
I'm sure getting this rig set up right will be a great setup, even without the mods discussed here.
   To answer your question, no I haven't messed with the pillar bots.
I have had the turntable up and running for a week now. As it is now, it is a major improvement over my previous table. I'm curious to hear how It will sound when it is set up properly.
-Brad

Brad -You are taking imo ...the right approach with this taking the setup in steps. Maybe its the project manager in me talking, but I think there is just too much to take in here (the way Bruce thinks) Steps are needed in the learning. There is also imo too much to un-learn if someone is coming from many years with a pivot arm. I honestly feel that someone with no pivot tonearm experience might have a better shot with this tonearm.
The I Beam system with leaf spring and weights brings a fourth dimension that we have discussed here. Never seen a professional view discussed in a paper or online anywhere that demonstrated a good understanding of it outside of the manual. Except here ...... but we are all just a bunch of music lovers.   8^)

The people (Audiophiles) I know from say 15 years ago - a few people who tried the ET2 were coming from years with a pivot arm and just could not seem to get around the idea of removing weight on the I beam and sliding the weight further back to get VTF; since on a pivot arm one normally just slides the back weight forward for more VTF and backward to get less VTF. Here you remove/add weights to get to the highest number on the I Beam- that's the objective. It's a different game. If one wants to set it up as designed. You can put on heavier or lighter cartridge bolts to achieve this as well.

One other person I remember and this is definitely going back 15 years; had a 6 figure system and was selling the VPI MKIV with the ET2 on it that he had just bought recently. He also owned Dunlavy towers, an Allnic preamp, Nakamichi TT that adjusted for the record, and the Dynavector tonearm. This ET2/VPI setup he was selling became my first ET2. He could not figure out why it wouldn't work past the first track on an LP. The problem ended up being the pump - low on PSI. I ended up replacing it with the Medo with a computer fan next to it to cool it. The funny thing is I wrote at the time to A Salvatore about this and he ended up putting my verbage in his blog.

Look forward to hearing about your progress.

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Hi Harry -

"When you get snowbound you gotta get Bruce's second run long "plank".

It is not possible Harry, to snow bound a true Canadian.
The temperature however is another thing on its own. My bones alert me 24 hours prior to cold coming. The good thing with cold and this crazy hobby - my room heating system (Music Reference Tubes and or a Krell Class A Amp) produces dry dry air. Just what the ET2 likes.
  
Cheers Chris