eminent technology 2 setup help

If the armboard is already drilled correctly for the arm, the ET tonearm can be set up successfully with the plastic cartridge alignment card that came with the arm (a clear rectangular piece of plastic with a hole at one end to fit over the turntable spindle and a scribed line along its length), an allen wrench (or two) and a six inch level. A small machinist square (3") to set the post is useful, but not required.

ET made a jig for setting up the arm, but it is not required, just makes it a bit quicker. You just need to step through the process logically and methodically starting with the turntable being level. If you spend some time with the manual understanding the configuration of the arm, and the interaction of the various adjustable components, you can move through it one step at a time and be successful. Just remember that all of the adjustments interact and that the desired outcome is for the arm tube to be level and tangential to the radius of the record.

If you continue to have trouble downloading the manual, try "save target as" (if using Internet Explorer) and save to a file first, then open it.

BTW, for leveling the tonearm, a great tool is a blank-sided LP, e.g., a multi-record set with the final side left blank, or some of the single-sided 45 rpm discs (but only those with **smooth** blank sides!). You'll be looking to accomplish neutral drift with the LP spinning and the stylus lowered onto the surface of the LP. The other alternative is to use a bit of electrician's putty (or mortite) added to the counterbalance weights to bring the arm to a neutral balance, and then check for drift with the stylus floating in the air.

As noted by Dcaudio, using the turntable feet to level the arm works well, but make sure you've first setup the arm with the arm pillar perfectly perpendicular to the surface of the platter or you may find that your VTA changes as the arm crosses the surface of the record because, while the arm is perfectly level, it doesn't run at the same height across the entire LP.

Mike,

Here is a followup to your further question via email to me about the the stylus alignment gauge. Since you have a pre-drilled armboard on your SOTA, you already have one of the biggest issues solved. The rest is purely an exercise in logic once you understand the principles of the arm design, which I think you do.

The stylus reference gauge is very simple. It is only apiece of plastic with a hole drilled at one end to fit over the spindle and a line scribed from the center of that hole to the end of the piece of plastic. The value of this tool is that you can very gently lower the stylus onto the stylus gauge at various points along its length to check that the stylus is settling right onto the line at each point along the length. Once you accomplish this, you know the arm is tracking perfectly tangential to the groves -- its "in alignment."

Wally Malewicz (of "Wallytractor" fame) makes an alignment gauge for linear tracking toneams. Lloyd Walker includes one with each of his Walker Proscenium Gold turntables, which use a linear tracking arm. You could probably order one from Music Direct, see http://www.amusicdirect.com/products/detail.asp?sku=AWALTRACTOR, but the cost is $149 and you'll probably have to wait for Wally to make one for you. OTOH, you could call Lloyd Walker to see if he has one on hand that he'd sell to you. (http://www.walkeraudio.com) The advantage of the Wallytractor is that the lines are scribed on a reflective surface that makes checking for stylus placement much easier, and it also gives you a great tool for adjusting azimuth by eye when you get to that point. The Wallytractor is beautifully and very accurately made.

Cheaper alternatives may be available. In a quick web search just now I found the following: http://www.turntablebasics.com/index.html It is shown with a pivoted arm, but the line you see drawn from the spindle to the edge should work just fine for what you need to do. Also gives you a mirrored surface.

For $5, this Garrott Brothers Cartridge Protractor would probably work: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.ACCT106601/sc.9/category.-109/it.A/id.1108/.f

Now, here's the least cost alternative... Make your own. Take a piece of heavy stock paper (24lb or greater). Fold the paper exactly in half - lengthways by aligning the edges. Make it a sharp crease. At one end, use scissors to cut off a corner from the end of the folded edge. Unfold the paper and fold it back the other way - to make it lay flat. Your corner cut will now be a "V" at the end of the crease remaining from your fold. Set the "V" against your spindle and the crease should run from the center of the spindle to the outer edge of the platter. Bingo - you now have a stylus alignment gauge with the crease as your scribed line.

Hope this is helping some. It will be confusing the first time through, but hopefully it will get clearer as you work with it.