Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Hi Chris,

I guess I’m missing something regarding the post I made above. and then your response...

How can the VTF not be changed when one changes VTA by using the arc block design of the ET? This will either move the overhang out or in depending upon the necessary adjustment....right?..therefore altering S2P distance and VTF.

From my memory, this fact is not stated in the manual

...going only by memory???

Early on in this thread I addressed this issue this way... when I set up the arm, I used my most played record weight/height/thickness as my reference and used this to set up the arc block in (it’s center) regarding the latter record height preference. I referred to this as the "neutral zone".

Any deviation from this "zone" is a result of a VTA adjustment on the ET’s arc block that alters in some way the SRA, the S2P, the VTF. None of this is mentioned in the manual.

So... as all of this relates to why I posted above to another member...

He had so many system changes in play, and seemingly a lot of basic arm set-up issues, yet seemingly wanted a direct response to one/two issues..... Impossible!

Slaw (Steve)

Regarding your VTA question - I find it rather odd from a previous owner/user of this tonearm ...how many years ? ... to be asking this question. This ET2 patented VTA feature is in fact what distinguishes it from all other tonearms including other air bearings. Bruce understood that records come with varied included cut angles, so he designed a tonearm to easily deal with them. 

Now the smart designer in whatever field, would never discuss secrets about how a patented design works .......in an Owners manual.
  
To use this VTA feature properly, and to see how it executes, is to understand it. Period. And we have discussed it in this thread previously.  
  
Your question therefore indicates to me that either your setup was off, you just never understood it, or maybe a combination.   

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As some of the ET2 owners here are Johnathan Carr fans I will let him re-affirm things.

This is for SLAW and it is also for PEGASUS

Jcarr and the ET2 VTA

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for those not wanting to click on the link. 

Jonathan Carr

However, as I recently wrote in Stereophile, the construction of every tonearm that I am aware of (with the sole exception of the Eminent Technology linear trackers) guarantees that altering SRA will simultaneously cause the effective length to change, along with the tracking force.

To make sure that any SRA-induced audible changes are truly attributable to SRA rather than sundry alignment shifts that came along for the ride, you must recheck the overhang and tracking force and "put them back" to what they were prior to the VTA change.

At the end of the day, you may ponder about the real value of "VTA on-the-fly" mechanisms (grin).

kind regards, jonathan

Hi Chris,

I’m still an owner. Plan to use it again at some point. If this negates me asking questions, well....that’s for you to decide.

You keep referring to the owner’s manual in almost every case except for mine? "Now a smart designer in whatever field, would never discuss how a patented design works.....in an owner’s manual".

#1 Why not?
#2 A patent is public knowledge for those who ask.
#3 Am I still missing something?

The arc block. Emphisis on (arc). Am I still missing something? When adjusted..moves the overhang slightly backwards or forwards. Doesn’t it?

The quote from Steven Carr seems to me at once confirm my post.

Happy new year to everyone.

Ages ago I replaced the entire arm mounting block and with it the VTA arc slider.
At that time I did not have the machining capability to replicate the arc in my design. So I did not copy that feature. I wasn’t too worried about this however because it is useful only if you play records on the same thickness and adjust VTA with them.
Try a little trig..... Set up the arm with the wand parallel to the record surface and the arc at its deepest point. Now raise or lower the manifold using the VTA adjust leaver. As designed the stylus will land at the same place regardless of manifold travel up or down. Brilliant.
Now use say a thicker record. With the same set up as before, the wand is parallel to the record surface at a point where the arc is not at its deepest. This has had the effect of moving the stylus landing point forward in the direction of record rotation. The stylus  landing point now moves backwards and forwards as VTA is changed.
Making the slider straight means that for a given VTA the stylus lands at the same place regardless of record thickness. With an arced slider we land at the same place regardless of VTA but only with the record thickness that the arm was set up for..

Cheers