Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

@pegasus
(if you are disenchanted with your London) - Send it to me I will mount it and report my findings here. I have been curious about that cartridge for a long time. A good winter project and winter has come early here. 20 degrees Cel. below where we should be this time of year. So much for global warming. 8^0

@frogman
I think Frogman has one , an older version/ from what I remember? had grounding issues due to the common ground pin (3 pin) arrangement ? If he sees this maybe he can comment on the mechanical setup/tracking ability achieved - aside from the noise issues common to the older ones.

Is the damping trough a nice to have or absolute necessity with this cart. As we know the damping trough - slows - things down.

Hi Chris - yes I remember that frogman has direct experience with a Decca London, although not all Londons are created equal, you could try it. Although it also waits for being mounted in a Thales Easy arm... sending a cartridge between continents needs a bit of research how to do that in an economical way.

I think fluid damping is necessary with the Decca on the ET2 or 2.5.
Taking Bruces numbers, I doubt that "my" "heavy" setup will essentially change resonance characteristic compared to the lightest setup (in numbers: ca. 49g eff. mass with cartridge vs. 37g). It’s a not really considerable 30% difference, which results in ca. 15% difference in resonance frequency. Eliminating a major problem normally means considerable changes.
Ie. a 15% resonance frequency change is IMO usually less important than to introduce damping.
As the London Deccas come with a very "clean" spring with practically inexistant damping - which leads to some of its qualities, overdamping with it's sonic issues goes one or a few mile with that cartridge...
The Grado wiggle vs. London dance is a bit like senior gymnastics vs. voodoo dance.

I have NOT read through this ..'extensive' thread, but I wonder if anyone is still using the ET2 with a Linn table. Back in the day, this was a pretty common combo...and one that worked very well. Today's Linn is far more transparent and resolving than the vintage model that typically had the ET2 arm back in the day. So, another question would be how great the arm would sound on a current Linn Radikal D Klimax version..and if anyone has actually tried that?

Hi Davey, you’re outside of the fenced green pastures of audiophile correctness if you mount an ET2 or ET2.5 onto a Linn. But outside the fence, there’s life too!
Because the ET2 / 2.5 is not a heavy arm it’s feasible, probably needs "expert tuning" of the springs.
Caveats are two: The leverage of the arm tends to tilt the subchassis slightly from one side to the other when playing an LP from beginning to end.
And there’s a second issue that can be resolved with a Linn accessory / modification: The Bespoke spokes, that stop the subchassis from rotational modes, but leave the subchassis vertically decoupling.
This is crucial because rotational modes are only very mildly coupled to a radial tonearm (they counterhold the vast majority of these forces within the horizontal bearing, except for slight dynamic imbalances (in the horizontal plane).
With tangential arms thr inertia of arm and counterweight don’t compensate external forces. So rotational modes lead to slight, but constantly varying horizontal movements of the bearing and cartridge suspension, and therefore a subjective instability, in effect like a wobbly skating force. These modes are "tracked" because usually the horizontal resonance of the arm is below (or around, and not better,) the frequency of these rotational modes.
The Bespoke modification has some slight drawbacks, it seems, but it is in effect quite brillant and will work wonders in this (specific ET) situation.

To the Et2 owners here, I learned on this "ET2 on Linn" linked thread

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/eminent-technology-et2-on-linn-lp12?highlight=et2%2Band%2Blin...

just how passionate these Linn people can be. 8^0
Good post by Pegasus, imo, I especially like this part.

Pegusus
you’re outside of the fenced green pastures of audiophile correctness if you mount an ET2 or ET2.5 onto a Linn. But outside the fence, there’s life too! Because the ET2 / 2.5 is not a heavy arm it’s feasible, probably needs "expert tuning" of the springs.

@daveyf
I learned over the years on AudioGon, that there are people in Audiophilia with years of experience, much money spent on gear, who can’t hear differences between the turntables themselves. One assumes because they have never did a Goldilocks setup where just the turntable was the changing factor? Why else otherwise?

From my personal experiences; and not to dish the various VPI, SP10 Technics, Jean Nantais Lenco, all fine tables in their own iterations that I owned (and do still own the Sp10 and Jean Nantais Lenco); I discovered that they were all ....bottlenecks....... to the ET tonearm. This was realized when I was mounted the ET 2.5 to the Verdier and it went to another higher level.

I sent a picture of my ET 2.5 and Verdier La Platine setup (an American/French) collaboration to Mr. Verdier in France, when he was still alive. His comment back to me was

"What is this strange looking, high quality tonearm you have mounted ?"

It was "outside" of his Audio box, but he could tell it meant business.

The ET 2.0 and 2.5 are little known in Europe and likewise Verdier La Platine little known in the US. Much better known in Canada, else I would not have found one 10 kilometers from where I lived at the time.

Daveyf - IMO If one heard the ET on the Linn in past years and found it a good combo, I have no doubt if one were to "expertly" mount an ET tonearm, in its correct iteration based on the cartridge being used, to the newest version of Linn - that one would be very satisfied.