You are correct; definitely prudent to check that and may indeed be the issue. On that note, the "rim" of the bearing tube should be flush or very close to flush with the front side of the joint. If the bearing tube extends out beyond the side of the joint it would probably cause the problem that xbart is having. Would you agree?
Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners
Where are you? What mods have you done ?
I have been using these ET2's for over 9 years now.
I am still figuring them out and learning from them. They can be modified in so many ways. Bruce Thigpen laid down the GENIUS behind this tonearm over 20 years ago. Some of you have owned them for over 20 years !
Tell us your secrets.
New owners – what questions do you have ?
We may even be able to coax Bruce to post here. :^)
There are so many modifications that can be done.
Dressing of the wire with this arm is critical to get optimum sonics along with proper counterweight setup.
Let me start it off.
Please tell us what you have found to be the best wire for the ET-2 tonearm ? One that is pliable/doesn’t crink or curl. Whats the best way of dressing it so it doesn’t impact the arm. Through the spindle - Over the manifold - Below manifold ? What have you come up with ?
Showing 29 responses by frogman
It is my understanding that for proper setup if one imagines (or when using the set-up jig) a straight line from the front edge of the turntable to the back edge and which goes directly through the platter’s spindle, the ET2’s tonearm tube should "intersect" that line at precisely 90 degrees. Assuming that the mounting base was aligned correctly, if one were to "turn(ing) the arm around the mounting hole" it seems to me that the desired geometry would be altered. The problem with the stylus landing inside of the lead-in groove can most easily be solved by moving the cap at the front end of the cuing eccentric ("cuing tube") towards the front so as to give the spindle extra travel distance toward the front before being stopped by the cap as intended. There is a fair amount of adjustability front to back available for this. |
**** It’s started raining here and I am collecting leaves. Don’t want to do this anymore :^( **** Mulch, mulch, mulch, Chris! Good for the lawn, too. Used to collect a couple of acres' worth of leaves off of our lawn at our upstate property. The locals used to think (and would tell me) that I was out of my mind. Mulching kit for my Husqvarna tractor to the rescue. OMG, what was I thinking! vpi, congrats on your new VDH. Love VDH cartridges. |
Great analogy! Ordered two long I-beams yesterday; single and double spring versions. What a nice man Bruce T is! You may recall from early in the thread my description of my diy balsa wood version of a long I-beam. Worked well, but always had trouble with reliably securing the leaf springs to it. Will keep you all posted. |
Dear Nikola, it was, in fact, you who I addressed in that post. Perhaps your confusion is simply a smoke screen and you are an even better cryptologist than I. Beware the “threat”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3flw200lX8 |
Great story, Chris. I too am a dog person and Artie my beagle is thankfully very well trained and knows that he is not allowed in my studio. Years ago when my dear wife and I were “getting serious” we found ourselves in an untenable situation. Her Siamese and my Chihuahua simply could not, or would not, get along. Whenever they were together the fur literally flew. Around this time most of my lps were in storage waiting for my personal life to settle down and I was keeping only my most cherished four hundred or so lps with me at my temporary digs. When my future wife and I decided to move in together, I brought those lp treasures to our new place and I put them in a row on the floor temporarily while we settled in and they waited for their vacationing two thousand or so familiy members to rejoin them. The fur continued to fly. I also noticed that Max, now sharing living space with his arch nemesis the Siamese, grew increasingly hyper; if it’s possible for a Chihuahua to be even more hyper. I came home one night that my wife was away on business to find that Max had chewed, in perfect sequence, ALL the spines of my lp jackets as if to say: Get that fu@&ing cat out of here!!! Luckily, no damage to the vinyl. Yes, my favorite lps’ jackets all have chewed bottom corners. I wanted to kill the little bastard. Not entirely clear how the ensuing negotiations were resolved, but the Siamese ended up in Cleveland, Ohio with sister-in-law. I’m sure I paid dearly for that one...I suspect I still am ☺️ |
Not sure if your last post was intended for me or not, Slaw. In the event it wasn’t or you still want company: Well, work being what it is for me this time of year and some relatively expected life/family issues, I’ve had practically no time to “play” with my system, so the two (single and double spring) long I-beams that I received from Bruce are still sitting unused and lonely. My impressions of my home-brew I-beam from a few years back may not be entirely relevant for obvious reasons, but the use of blu-tack should work the same way on the “official” beams. I will certainly respond when I can do some critical listening using them. |
My interest in a comparison of the two tables was specifically about any possible differences in the way that the two keep rhythm (PRAT) and general sense of aliveness; something that would be audible regardless (mostly) of arm and cartridge. Of course, along with improved speed stability come things like improved image stability and less grain, but still.... Please share any impressions, Garrard 😉. Congrats again. Finally (bad audiophile!) got around to trying the (OEM) long I-beams. Will report back with impressions soon. |
Prior to mounting my ET2 on a TNT6 (V platter), it spent time living on three versions of the HW19 (MK2-MK4). During that time I tried many different replacements for the springs. The best in my system, stability and sound wise, was an original Sorbothane puck with the round indentation facing up into which was inserted a short original Mod Squad cone facing up. The top plate rested on these and my sense was that the top plate saw little compliance. The height was perfect. I normally don’t like the sonic signature of Sorbothane, but it worked very well in this application. |
Excellent suggestions and analysis by Chris. vpi, while I have not used a HW19 for some time and ever since I got my TNT6, I did experience what you describe during the years that I did use it. It was a very low level, volume dependent, hum that I was never able to get rid of. In my case, the cause of it was the HW19’s motor itself; the hum was much worse when the motor was turned off (!). While I could never get rid of it entirely, the level of hum was lowest when I secured a grounding wire to one of the bolts which secure the arm board (ET2, of course) and ran it to the ground lug on the back of my preamp. Hum/grounding issues involve a bit of black magic and the causes and solutions don’t always make sense at first. In addition to Chris’ excellent suggestions try removing the tt belt and with the stylus resting on an lp turn the motor on and off. Any change in hum level? Then, lift the stylus off the record and do it again to make sure the hum is not simply mechanical noise generated by the motor. Btw, it is not clear from your description of the problem whether you can hear the hum while music is playing. Also, try reversing the orientation of the tt AC plug. These may give you a clue as to what is going on. Keep in mind that, like Chris, almost from the time I got my ET2, I have used a straight run of wire from cartridge to preamp; no junction box. I also highly recommend this; the sonic benefits are tremendous imo. However, interestingly and unfortunately, while things are dead quite with MC carts, I now (TNT) tend to have noise issues (mostly buzzing) with MM cartridges. Varies cart to cart. My Acutex and Azden are acceptable, the Empire is borderline; and very frustratingly my “Holy Grail MM”, the AT ATML 170 OCC is unusable. With a lot of experimentation and moving wires around as Chris suggests I can get things acceptably quite with most MM’s, but there is always some noise which I wish I could get rid of entirely. Good luck and I know I am not thinking of some of the other things that I tried. I will post them as I think of them. |
Glad you figured it out, VPI. However, I am perplexed by a couple of things; and not meaning to add to any disappointment 🙃 **** Bruce's color coding doesn't match my VDH. **** Huh!? Red/Green, White/Blue; no? I do know that the Blue on my VDH’s has been unusually dark. Seems to me that a tiny bit of hum would be the least of the issues caused by reversing the two ground wires. Did you hear any other distortions or phase issues? |
Speaking of removable arm boards and audiophile anxiety: My (now “hybrid”) TNT 6 came with an arm board drilled for a SME V. I was having difficulty getting a blank or predrilled armboard for my ET2, so I went ahead and had VPI drill the SME V board to accept the ET2, SME cutout and all. I was eventually able to source two blank armboards which VPI drilled for the ET2 and for the Syrinx PU3 which I keep “just in case”. Wouldn’t you know it, I was convinced that the arm board with the SME cutout sounded better and actually went back and forth a couple of times with the two arm boards to determine which actually did sound better; PITA. Eventually settled on the new board without the SME cutout simply because it looked so much better 😊. Happy New Year to all! |
You guys have excellent memory! Yes, London Decca. Possibly the most frustrating of all my audio experiences; certainly of those in analog playback. The Decca makes a sound that, in some respects, is the best I have experienced in my system, When I say “best” I refer to the ability to let recorded music have more of the sense of aliveness and to move with the forward impetus that live music can have. Tonally, while it sounds somewhat “old-school”, it gives individual images a degree of tonal density that I love. However, as Chris remembers, no matter what I do I can’t get rid of a deal breaking amount of ground buzzing and humming. As far as tracking goes it has always surprised me that it tracks better than its reputation would suggest. On my ET2 the best tracking cartridge in my humble stable of cartridges is the Monster SG2000. The Decca doesn’t track nearly as well, but is acceptable with most recordings and has the most trouble, as expected, with densely orchestrated orchestral recordings. I agree that the magnesium arm tube is the way to go. Likewise, use of the damping trough does improve the Decca’s tracking; not hugely so, but a definite improvement in difficult musical passages. The cartridge is so alive sounding that it can afford the very subtle “slowing” of dynamics that the use of the trough seems to cause with some cartridges. Now, here is a bit of a mystery. As anyone who has ever struggled to find the best grounding scheme for their audio system knows, it is all a bit mysterious why some things work and why others don’t. The hum/buzzing that I experience with the Decca is not subtle. I can reduce it to a level that with fairly aggressive music I can just about ignore it, but as I said it is ultimately a deal breaker. When I lower the “paddle” into the trough’s fluid the level of the buzzing is reduced slightly. Huh?! Why on earth (pun) would this be? Not a huge difference, but an obvious reduction. Thoughts? |
Thanks, Chris. Great suggestions. **** Did you try the phono stage cheater plug with the ground removed ? ***** Yup, of course, **** separate the wires the last 12-18 inches before they go into the phono. **** Have not tried that. Wires are a twisted pair for each channel; unshielded from cartridge pins to smiley face and beyond to just above manifold. Then, above the manifold each twisted (braided) pair goes into its own individual length of Teflon tubing all the way to where each wire is soldered to the back of the corresponding RCA jack inside the phono stage. From the point that each twisted pair goes into Teflon tubing, both “tubes” together go into a length of copper braid over which is black insulating sheathing. The phono stage end of the copper braid has a copper wire “pig tail” which goes to the grounding lug on the phono stage. From that same point where the pig tail is soldered to the copper braid, a short length of each of the two Teflon tubes exit the copper braid/sheathing and each of the four individual wires are soldered inside the phono stage. I have wanted to try going totally unshielded the entire length of wire(s) for quite some time which would allow me to try your suggestion of moving each individual wire around. Great suggestion. A couple of points: I have no grounding issues whatsoever with any other cartridge I have except the ATML170OCC; although to a lesser degree. All MC’s are dead silent. Also, I experience essentially the same degree of grounding issues with the Decca in the Alphason and Grado tonearms which I used before acquiring the ET2 and the Decca. In the meantime, I’m working on getting up the nerve to buy a Decca Reference $😱$ Regards. |
I think that Chris is the perfect candidate for a London Decca Reference mounted on one of his ET’s. He understands the arm like few do and has the mindset and discipline to get the most out of the combination. There was something about one of his posts that gave me the feeling that he is intrigued 🤔 |
**** BTW - anybody had the issue, that the damping trough "moved" over a long time? Ie. the bonding tape letting loose slightly, not symmetrically bearing side vs. outer side. In consequence the "oil bath" is not level with a level arm.**** Yes, and the arm will then “see” varying degrees of damping as the paddle traverses the trough. Not good. My solution was to cut a small piece of foam approximately one half or more the length of the portion of trough that is bonded to the manifold housing and slightly taller than the space between the bottom of the manifold housing and the arm board or top plate of the table. Push it inside the middle portion of the gap between the two and the springiness of the foam will apply just enough pressure to the underside of the bonded portion of the trough to keep it perfectly in place. |
Thanks for the account. I agree about the ET2’s prowess. When you see Bruce again ask him about the procedure you used to try and clean the “capillaries”. Seems to me that the only effective way to do it is to remove those “screw on plugs” and clean them and the orifices that they screw into individually. This is what I did after experiencing stickiness of the bearing. Soaking the plugs in some alcohol left obvious residue at the bottom. It solved the problem. I would like to know if Bruce feels your method is as effective. I would like to clean the capillaries again and your method certainly is easier. Please report back. Thanks. |
Thanks, @forrestc. Please keep us posted. |
Congratulations on your purchase, dentdog Fantastic tonearm! And welcome to the thread. With the exception of an occasional and thankfully rare bit of noise (like an annoying click or pop from a favorite lp) it is one of the most civilized and friendliest threads on Audiogon with a wealth of useful info on the setup and use of the great ET2. Keep us posted. |
I used to think that there is little that could really be learned and understood about an individual’s true sense of integrity and mettle from “conversations” on an Internet forum. I mostly still feel that way; but, there are, in fact, times when those things become very obvious in spite of the vagueness of the medium. (Btw, love Bruce’s ET2 T-shirt 😊)
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