Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Off Topic, but what are the speakers over Peter's left shoulder?
Cheers
Grant

Hi Grant
they sure do look like slim two panel ESL's don't they?  ...or doors ?
You got me curious so I asked Peter.  

Dear Chris;

Thanks for the inquiry.

Yup – they look like speakers. They are the insides of cabinet doors for the TV.

What you cannot see are the Soundsmith Dragonfly speakers, directly behind me, which have replaced the Soundsmith larger stand mount Monarchs. The Dragonfly’s are great, but I was surprised at how well they do in place of the larger stand mount Monarch’s. They always get rave reviews at shows, and we have won best of show with them many times.

Most folks are not aware I have been designing speakers for over 40 years, and was director of Engineering at Bozak.

Ha, should have known, but as a vinyl, tube and ESL tragic I do get excited when I hear talk of UFO’s and see glowing spheres. :-)
Damn if I had known you were going to ask him, I would have asked if he thought his MIMC* would be suitable for the ET2?
Just trying to get back on topic.
Oh and my best cartridge (ignoring the Koetsu I am too scared to use!) is a beautiful piece of Peter’s work, an SS ruby cantilever re-tipped Supex SD900.
Thanks for checking and cheers 

Grant

Damn if I had known you were going to ask him, I would have asked if he thought his MIMC* would be suitable for the ET2?

Grant
The limitation is not with the ET 2 and 2.5. As you know they can handle any cartridge, but the 2.5 "was" designed for heavier lower compliance MC’s. So this MIMC would probably work better with the 2.5 and its larger lower resonating air bearing spindle.

The limit will be based on your preamp capability. From the website.

The name is an acronym for “Moving Iron for Moving Coil preamps). In other words, with its .4mV output, the MIMC should be used with a moving coil phono preamp capable of producing between 58-64dBs of gain.

****************************************************

(ignoring the Koetsu I am too scared to use)

I have a cart like that too that I call the XV1-AXE. Japanese Design, German Rebuilt

I once beheaded it - 20 feet from the turntable years ago. It was on a ET2, on a brass armpod - (see pic 39 on my audiogon virtual system page ) I had carried the whole shabang over to the bench to repair one of the leads with some solder. Somehow the 20 lb pod got moved in an awkward way and I felt a light tug............. Still hurts to think about it
Anyway sent it to Peter and because of the manner in which its well endowed cantilever was sheared off, it damaged internals. He said it could not be rebuilt. At least he was not willing to do it based on his business model. So from advice from Audiogon user Nandric, I sent it over seas to Axel Schuerholz in Germany. He rebuilt it. He even had to make his own cart body bolts for it. Got it back and used it for a bit. One word - Organic. just amazing. But I was scared to use it out of fear over what happened. It still intimidates me today. Kind of like my daughters cat.

That MIMC design you reference can be retipped multiple times at $350 a shot.

but as a vinyl, tube and ESL tragic

good wording. 8^0
Reminds me of the Tragically Hip - Gord Downie - RIP
of the remaining speakers (4) that I have held onto that will passed on ... two are full ESL’s and one is a hybrid - B&W ESL DM70 Continental.

Happy "frigging cold" New Year to Everyone

Happy New Year to all!Hi Chris, this two remarks of yours are still open:

Pegasus:
Non changing VTF is a question of having the centre of gravity aligned with the vertical bearing when floating the arm. This is not an exclusive feature of the ET2 arm, there are more that are concipied this way AFAIR. 

AFAIR - as far as I remember.  

Oh wondrous flying Greek horse - 8^0 - please do tell of another design that strives for this high level .... and achieves it. If you don't post back I will assume none exist.

 
I don't know if we understood each other correctly: I was speaking about static balance around the vertical axis, which defines if tracking force is stable with changing height of arm/VTA....AFAIR: 
- Any "standard" arm, with a straight tube (as seen from the side), a concentric counterweight and a vertical bearing axis crossing the arm tube in the center of the tube is in principle (almost) correct.
- The ET2 is not different in that regard from arms like the Rega, or the Graham Robin eg. 
It is easier though to correct the ET2 precisely, with the vertical position of the counterweight.
But... who does this precisely – and how?- Most unipivots try to stabilize the bearing by placing the counterweight below the (vertical ? :-) bearing, which introduces varying tracking force with height/VTA.

Pegasus:
From the info in your posts here, I recommend you remove your VTA block, re-align with a feeler gauge. re-install, and if not level... (leaning tower)... it's something before it causing your symptoms. I would not install the bearing, armtube, end I Beam until this was resolved.

Humble horse, although a racing horse, listened to massa Chris :-)
- I checked on a "spare" ET2 (Yes I have one... :-) and dismounted the VTA block. Yes, the engineering, idea and precision are admirable.
Yes, some people torqued the VTA block much too much like the pre-owner / pre-setup man (are there any setup-woman...?). But not me...
Two "axe blocks" left/right side of the VTA adjustment axe press the axe with the VTA mounting block to the air bearing block. Both "axe blocks" should exert the same force onto the axe, most easily done by precise adjustment of the gaps for equal depth.
- This was/is correct on my arm.
- I tested if changing the VTA with the VTA lever affects lateral levelness of the arm. It still does, lateral levelness is sligthly different with height, repeatable for different settings, some positions good, some a bit less so. Not to an obvious degree, but IME to a degree that necessitates rechecking lateral levelness after resetting VTA, based on my listening experience, specially in its effect on the bass.
Sorry for the still not totally happy news :-)
This is in my system with two twisted naked 0.1 mm silver wires,  two L/R independent caple looms in a ca. 10cm diameter, very low torque on the arm apparently.

Pegasus
This is in my system with two twisted naked 0.1 mm silver wires, two L/R independent caple looms in a ca. 10cm diameter, very low torque on the arm apparently.

Pegasus
You have spoken repeatedly about your wire setup but have never been generous enough to share pictures of it to those in this forum. It is a new year and pictures are worth a thousand words. I ask you to share again. if you would like send me the pic and I will post for you.

From my experience the best wiring setup is to have the wiring come off the armtube down into a happy face loop. I discovered this during my armpod experiments. The wires, going down into a happy face loop after the armtube have the least effect on the movement of the air bearing spindle. Remember the ET2 is a free bird, unlike say the Kuzma Airline for example; does not need the wiring and airline for damping. Different design. Those that have wiring arranged in a Kuzma Airline type setup, on their ET2, are asking for trouble. Your wiring is controlling the spindle and will make you think maybe things are not level with its pushes and pulls. My Verdier uses a tall Solid Aluminum pillar for an armboard, that is bolted to the plinth, so the wires come down naturally. The ET2 really does like to be placed on a pedestal. I show pictures of this wiring set up on my virtual page.

I am reposting a thread archive shot of Frogman’s wiring set up for everyone benefit here also. Frogman, I hope you do not mind ? 8^0

Frogmans wiring

For anyone using a plinth that was fairly flat with the armboard (like here with FM’s TNT), this is IMO, a great arrangement and the way I would do it also, if I had a flat plinth. Notice the happy face loop coming off the end of the armtube.