Uni-Protractor Set tonearm alignment

Hi Chris,
last topic first .... yes, there is also an UNI-template for tangential tonearms.

1) "We" was referring to the audiophile community - including me.
Kind of universal - in the sense of "we, the people" - i.e. not a club nor a circle of friends, but all audiophiles in the past 4 decades.

2) With mechanical issues I meant that tangential tonearms do ( with various intensity however ) put the suspension of a cartridge's cantilever to considerable stress. Even in a servo controlled tangential tonearm there first has to be a declination from the tangential right angle to move the tonearm.
It is not an apparent immediate issue, rather a long term problem.
I worked with tangential tonearms for 11 years.

There were and are cartridges which are mechanically better suited to withstand the mechanical stress ( especially Supex SDX-1000, original small body ZYX) and a great many which are not.

I didn't really did run into "problems" with neither the ET2, ET 2.5, Air Tangent 2B, Air Tangent Reference nor Goldmund T3F.
I all had them on my turntable(s) and they all did perform quite well and some showed potential for great sound.
I used them with high tech air supply ( Jun Air "Troll") and adjustable pressure and air volume.

The ET 2.5 still today is a best buy.
If mounted with the right cartridge ( low body weight, solid suspension ) and if you do not ask for the last punch, dynamic, air, color and detail in the lower 2 registers of the audio frequency band.
The ET 2.5 improves considerably with increased air pressure up to a certain limit. It does deliver very good bass with a lot of "body" - but not quite the quality I seek.

It is a very good tangential tonearm and if I were looking today for a tonearm in the $1k to $2.5k range, it would still be high on my list.

Cheers,
D.

Thx for the quick reply D and clarification on the lack of issues other than pump sources with the ET. I have had no cartridge issues in 5 years and it is my main arm.

Is the UNI tangential tool similar to the ET supplied one. I am looking for something that would let me square the line better from the spindle to the bottom of the straight sp10 casing. I am using a homemade extender right that does the job but am curious.

One final question.

You said

"The ET 2.5 improves considerably with increased air pressure up to a certain limit". It does deliver very good bass with a lot of "body" - but not quite the quality I seek."

Are you able to recall what platform/table you mounted the 2.5 on and what PSI you registered at the air bearing, not the pump source.

Thank You Chris

Dear Chris,
my ET 2 was mounted first on the big Le Tallec tt (modified) and later on the Apolyt (450 lbs chassis, 100 lbs composite platter on radial/axial air bearing, 2 Hz air suspension frequency of whole turntable).
The ET 2.5 was mounted on the Apolyt only.
I worked mainly - as far as I recall - with 0.4 to 0.6 bar.
In american psi this means 6 to 8 psi approximately.
This was read down at the Apolyt's control board.
Cheers,
D.

Dear D -
That Apolyt is quite the platter and those arm pods. :)

My extensive testing of the 2.5 showed me that 6-8 working psi is a very safe albeit too LOW psi for the 2.5 to show its stuff. So am not surprised at your earlier remarks.

I found the ET 2.5 starts coming into its own around 16 psi to about 20 psi. My findings were later confirmed by Arthur Salvatore who told me his members recommend 19 psi. "Above 19 psi and the arm starts to lose information".

At 19 psi – the ET 2.5 has phenomenal PRAT, Bass Attack, HF, sounds the most natural. It competes with arms well above its $2900 US purchase price. I very much recommend to those with the ET 2.0 to have them upgraded to the 2.5 bearing along with a Timeter Aridyne medical pump available on Ebay. These two mods make the basic ET 2.0 arm are a giant killer.

Good luck and much success with your Uni D.

Cheers Chris

Dear Chris, I found my old files ... last setting with the ET 2.5 was 1.2 bar. Notes further mentioned "threshold - can't take more pressure due to material and problems with re-bouncing air stream".
Cheers,
D.