Hi Mepearson,
Youve done some solid work in your experiments, and I applaud your putting it all on the line to relate your experiences - this, in light of the fact that many on this and other lists eat their young.
I find recommendations like those of Dertonearm to be amusing - that of dedicating a specific alignment to a specific tonearm. Me ... Ive been an unapologetic Bearwaald guy, but thats what makes horse racing. The key for me is *accurately* setting up the arm - using an arc protractor.
To this latter point, my last exposure to an ET-2 was in the early days, when I was still collaborating with Peter (Redpoint). I had not yet ventured into arc protractors, and the arms under comparison were the ET-2 with surge tank, pressure regulator (set to 6-8 psi, fed by 30 psi pump), a Moerch DP-6/precision red wand, and a Graham 2.2.
Id love to have that ET-2 back now that Ive become sold on arc protractors. My takeaway at the time was that of an audible drop off in tracing distortion in the ET-2 (when compared with the two pivoted arms), along with a leaner but very tuneful bass. The ET-2 tracked flawlessly with both Benz and Denon carts.
The reason Id like to return to this experiment, is that my memory tells me that the order of magnitude difference between the ET-2s perceived tracing distortion and that of the two pivoted arms was equivalent to the jump I experienced with every arm for which Ive re-set, used an arc protractor. I noticed another similarity with linear trackers when I adopted arc protractors. The setup is much less sensitive to small changes in VTA (a good thing).
I would not propose that you return to the FR tonearm, but at such time you get the urge to play with it again, contact me privately, and Ill draw a Baerwaald protractor up for you to play with.
I think the ET-2 is a brilliantly conceived piece of gear, and if youre dedicated to finding a nice location for your pump (or quieting it down if its noisy) then it is a very viable solution.
Regarding the latter discussions in this thread about phase distortion relating to pivoted arms ... well, we might as well be discussing super string theory. There are so many elements that can contribute to the perception of a band playing in or out of time, and while geometry is perhaps the easiest one to pontificate about, my experience is that it has the least effect.
This is yet another example of my basic tenet - that varying architectures, when conceived and executed competently, will converge on a central point of musicality.
As usual however, there are so many other variables to consider. If ones basic geometry is off (pivoting arm) it will swamp any other effect, and one runs the risk of setting up a straw man argument, shooting down pivoted arms (instead of the real culprit - inaccurate setup), and proving nothing in the process. A Stradivarius out of tune is just an out of tune violin.
The arms Ive had most recent extensive experience with are the Tri-Planar, Schroeder Reference, and Durand Talea. Never would the words phase distortion come to mind when listening to these three fine arms. The qualifier is - when the geometry is set up accurately - with an arc protractor.
With all due respect to Mike L, I challenge the veracity of your comments due to the probability of a flawed setup which Id rather not discuss on this forum.
Id love to demonstrate this to you all at this years Audiofest. In both of the rooms well be exhibiting, the phase performance of the speakers (Green Mountain Audio and Daedalus) is extraordinary, and readily exposes flaws elsewhere in the signal chain. Believe it or not, you wont find a horn in a Galibier room this year. Go figure ...
Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier
Youve done some solid work in your experiments, and I applaud your putting it all on the line to relate your experiences - this, in light of the fact that many on this and other lists eat their young.
I find recommendations like those of Dertonearm to be amusing - that of dedicating a specific alignment to a specific tonearm. Me ... Ive been an unapologetic Bearwaald guy, but thats what makes horse racing. The key for me is *accurately* setting up the arm - using an arc protractor.
To this latter point, my last exposure to an ET-2 was in the early days, when I was still collaborating with Peter (Redpoint). I had not yet ventured into arc protractors, and the arms under comparison were the ET-2 with surge tank, pressure regulator (set to 6-8 psi, fed by 30 psi pump), a Moerch DP-6/precision red wand, and a Graham 2.2.
Id love to have that ET-2 back now that Ive become sold on arc protractors. My takeaway at the time was that of an audible drop off in tracing distortion in the ET-2 (when compared with the two pivoted arms), along with a leaner but very tuneful bass. The ET-2 tracked flawlessly with both Benz and Denon carts.
The reason Id like to return to this experiment, is that my memory tells me that the order of magnitude difference between the ET-2s perceived tracing distortion and that of the two pivoted arms was equivalent to the jump I experienced with every arm for which Ive re-set, used an arc protractor. I noticed another similarity with linear trackers when I adopted arc protractors. The setup is much less sensitive to small changes in VTA (a good thing).
I would not propose that you return to the FR tonearm, but at such time you get the urge to play with it again, contact me privately, and Ill draw a Baerwaald protractor up for you to play with.
I think the ET-2 is a brilliantly conceived piece of gear, and if youre dedicated to finding a nice location for your pump (or quieting it down if its noisy) then it is a very viable solution.
Regarding the latter discussions in this thread about phase distortion relating to pivoted arms ... well, we might as well be discussing super string theory. There are so many elements that can contribute to the perception of a band playing in or out of time, and while geometry is perhaps the easiest one to pontificate about, my experience is that it has the least effect.
This is yet another example of my basic tenet - that varying architectures, when conceived and executed competently, will converge on a central point of musicality.
As usual however, there are so many other variables to consider. If ones basic geometry is off (pivoting arm) it will swamp any other effect, and one runs the risk of setting up a straw man argument, shooting down pivoted arms (instead of the real culprit - inaccurate setup), and proving nothing in the process. A Stradivarius out of tune is just an out of tune violin.
The arms Ive had most recent extensive experience with are the Tri-Planar, Schroeder Reference, and Durand Talea. Never would the words phase distortion come to mind when listening to these three fine arms. The qualifier is - when the geometry is set up accurately - with an arc protractor.
With all due respect to Mike L, I challenge the veracity of your comments due to the probability of a flawed setup which Id rather not discuss on this forum.
Id love to demonstrate this to you all at this years Audiofest. In both of the rooms well be exhibiting, the phase performance of the speakers (Green Mountain Audio and Daedalus) is extraordinary, and readily exposes flaws elsewhere in the signal chain. Believe it or not, you wont find a horn in a Galibier room this year. Go figure ...
Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier