Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Hi Chris, yes, had not enabled the "watch" on this thread, so was oblivious until recently it had restarted. 

I indeed have 2 aluminum wands and yes, running LOMC's - Ortofon Quintet Black (boron cantilever), Ortofon Quintet Mono, and an AT33PTG/II.

I have had different wraps on them in the past, and stuffed foam inside too (what is your stance on that?), but they are naked now.
I have ordered my own sheet of CF wrap though, so am going to give that a try.

I do still have the original single leaf, but seeing your post I did write (again) to Bruce yesterday, so might change that up too.

And I am shamed into knowing I need to clean the manifold too! Although I do have dual inline filters and dry Colorado air in my favor.

Oh, and out of order, but Bruce recommended this pump to me a few months back, so am running this now, is performing well, very quiet.

Chris,
Thanks for in depth info on wands.  Still mulling this issue.  It seems the cf would work with a wider range of cartridges but the mag is a closer match to my Delos.   I'm back to two springs with no damping.  In the process I also checked/reset all alignment-azimuth, overhang, leveling, vtf, etc. Last night I was getting the best sound I have heard from my rig.   

BH,
I'm on my way to the Lowe's audiophile aisle :).    While I don't have the knowledge or expertise of others on this thread, for what it's worth, I can highly recommend you try the double and triple spring planks.  They are pretty inexpensive and make a large change to the sound.  I found triple springs too strident and the double just right, but with damping the triple might work for someone else.

Bruce recommended that Alita pump to me a while back too, but I am confused by the recommendation.  The Alita A15 only puts out 1.4 psi and the ET II manual recommends a minumum of 2.5 with the low pressure manifold.  I am running a Medo in a quiet box with a fan for cooling.  The Medo is rated at 7.11 psi.  It says it only has a 60 minute duty cycle but with the plate fan on the quiet box I am listening for hours with no problems.  Lots of Medo pumps on EBay.
Cheers,
Harry

Hi Harry,

Looking at the new springs currently...

I made same assumption on the Alita and Bruce clarified from the product website:

   

Look at the pressure versus flow graph, at lower flow rates the pressure goes up, the Alita AL-15 usually measures about 3.5 - 4.0 when operating a tonearm.

it is turning out to be more than strong enough. 

👍

Bh80231
I have had different wraps on them in the past, and stuffed foam inside too (what is your stance on that?), but they are naked now.

Bh
In the past I experimented a lot with the I Beam, PSI - multiple pumps, Wiring, and different carts. I also own all three armwands. So I exchanged the armwands. I've never run the aluminum & CF  tubes naked that I can recall. My take is Bruce put it in the tube for a reason; but the tonearm is very easy to tweak, so I would try and use it whichever way it works in ones system, understanding that it is resonating more without the foam. Thinking about it, the aluminum wand may work better without foam, in a cart like the Sonus Blue Gold - Dynamic Compliance: 50 x 10-6cm/Dyne. I have run that cart on the ET2 with no problem at all but the foam was in the aluminum wand.   
   
Have you tried running your tonearm with the highest vertical inertia -  the least amount of weight possible on the I beam ?

bh80231

I indeed have 2 aluminum wands and yes, running LOMC’s - Ortofon Quintet Black (boron cantilever), Ortofon Quintet Mono, and an AT33PTG/II.

I have had different wraps on them in the past, and stuffed foam inside too (what is your stance on that?), but they are naked now.
I have ordered my own sheet of CF wrap though, so am going to give that a try.

bh80231
I stripped my aluminium wand of both the inside foam and also the heat shrink on the tube - at the time I was running both a low compliance Denon 103 Garrott ( boron cantilever/weinz tip ) and low to medium compliance Carnegie Model One. TT was Sota Star vacuum at that time. In both instances I got a lighter tonal balance but with more transparency. Overall I preferred the increased transparency over the slight lightening of balance.
The other mod I did was to remove the teflon insert from the headshell part of the tube and replace it with a carbon fibre insert pressed and bonded in. This was worthwhile as well.