Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Slaw, That's a good idea. A bond between similar materials couldn't hurt.

I agree with Dg. I would only add that I would use the shim only if absolutely necessary. With my 420 on the magnesium arm wand and with Cardas cart clips on the VDH wire, I can just about fit the clips in a way that does not stress the wires/clips; although it's just on the cusp of making me feel uneasy about it.

Dear Nandric,

****Well I expressed my indebtedness to you already but I had no idea that you are also a lawyer.****

Lawyer? Heavens no! A mere musician. Although, truth be told, it may come as a surprise just how many similarities (in a way) and parallels exist between our respective professions; albeit in very different realms. Clearly the subject of a different discussion, but I have always found a tendency among non-musician music lovers to romanticize the music-making process; when in actuality, humans that we all are, much negotiation, personality analysis, reliance on precedent, etc. comes into play (pun intended).

Now here is a poser for all you guys -
An engineer/mathematician friend of mine suggested many years ago that if you run a tangential tracking tonearm and set the stylus exactly on the tangent, then the stylus has no reference as it has no lateral forces acting upon it and hence it is unstable. ( for those of you old enough think old fashioned cars with kingpins and wobbly steering when centered ).
His proposal was that if you run a tangential tracking arm then you should run a tiny amount of overhang and tracking angle on the cartridge.
Thoughts anyone...

Dear Frogman, '(me)Lawayer? Heavens no!' What have they done to you? Chris is confronted with 3 or 4 of them but is still kind to me.

Dear Dover, The most of us are already scared by linear tonearms. Adding complexity to complexity is a strange way to improve the situation.

Dear Nandric, I do hope that you know that my comments are merely in jest, and for fun. I hold no bias towards your esteemed profession. In fact, I owe a debt of gratitude to at least two of the lawyers who I have had to employ over the years. On a tangential note (won't go into many details here), the end result of one of those instances is the relationship with my spouse, who because of her amazing work ethic has taught me that there can be be as much art and devotion applied to any endeavor; not just music making. (Please pass the box of tissues.....)

Regards.

Dover, very interesting. The ET2 manual states that overhang should be set in such a way that the stylus lands on a perpendicular line which intersects the platter spindle. I have always found that I get better image stability (particularly with center image), and an overall more relaxed sound if I extend the arm wand so that the stylus lands a tiny bit beyond that line. Is that what you mean by "run a tiny amount of overhang"? Interestingly, the effect is more noticeable with low compliance cartridges.

Frogman/Dover, I wonder if this is about adding a small and constant skating force to help propel the carriage toward the spindle in a more controlled manner. Similarly, when leveling the carriage, optimal set-up may call for a very slight tilt of the manifold toward the spindle to gain assistance from gravity. I tend to find level empirically-- by watching the behavior of the stylus in the lead-in and run-out sections, observing cantilever deflection, and listening for tracking problems and distortion. I suppose I should add a leveling bubble to the air manifold for a more precise assessment.

Frogman - yes. Ed Thigpen's response at the time was "he's probably right".
Dgarretson, I use to check the level on my ET2 by balancing it to 0 with an additional counterweight and checking that when nudged the arm would travel freely and the same distance in both directions from centre. This as well as a level on top of the tube. Possibly a string bias weight type of weight pulling on the end of the armtube may be "gentler" than tilting the arm in your instance ??.

Frogman and other SL tonearm devotee's: I would think you are defeating one of the prime advantages of an SL tonearm by deliberately setting the stylus so that it is not on the radius of the LP (a line from the outer edge through the center of the spindle). By not doing that, you have a small but constant amount of tracking angle error at all points across the surface, and like Dave said, you have introduced some skating force for which you cannot compensate (no AS on an SL tonearm). However, as Duke said, if it sounds good, it IS good.

Dgarretson
I wonder if this is about adding a small and constant skating force to help propel the carriage toward the spindle in a more controlled manner. Similarly, when leveling the carriage, optimal set-up may call for a very slight tilt of the manifold toward the spindle to gain assistance from gravity.

Well IMO both of these represent a bad compromise and bad design. As far as the ET2 is concerned I have read posts that relate to a slight tilt a few times here. Here is a more recent one from Tonywinsc

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1342120769&openflup&22&4#22

From that post

I had a buddy who used the ET2 linear arm on his VPI table. It took him a few years to figure it out, but I recall him telling me that he had to level his table a certain way- slightly downwards, I think and it would track perfectly. He also said that he had to keep the air bearing tube perfectly clean. It would sound grainy if the tube had any dust on it.

This ET2 was setup on a tilt to help send it to the spindle. This is a result of not reading setup instructions. They also say men have a problem asking for directions too. So I guess Tony's friend never figured it out.

When I raise my ET2 arm and let its cueing lever eccentric actually rest against the cueing eccentric. At 19 psi I can lightly blow against the cartridge and even with it at rest, and the friction involved with the lever at rest on the cueing eccentric, it will still traverse the entire platter. It does not need gravity. Hence the simplicity, beauty and elegance of the ET2 design to me. Platter leveling is done first with a bubble level the length of the patter itself. The arm itself is then balanced with extra blue tac on the weights and gravity as previously discussed here on the thread. Sometimes the bar can get set high in the first jump.

Ct0517 - I would not run an ET downhill, but I get the overhang argument.

NOW HERE IS ANOTHER POSER to ponder :

With a pivoted arm we have an overhang. The pivot arm/stylus tip moves in an arc, which means that for every 1.8 seconds ( 1 rotation ) the stylus tip has actually moved slightly forward with each rotation.
Put another way if you put the stylus tip in the first groove, and draw a tangent to the spindle centre, then with each rotation the stylus tip will move further ahead from that tangent.

This means that to achieve the correct playback speed, with a pivoted arm, then the TT needs to speed up with each rotation.

This means that the only playback system that is accurate in terms of speed is in fact a linear tracker.

Now...thoughts...

I agree with Chris and Dover, in my experience the ET should not be run downhill. Anything but perfect leveling of the arm causes image instability and balance problems at best, and in a worst case it causes severe distortion at the end of a record. The effects of the increased overhang adjustment have been relatively subtle, but definitely audible (beneficial in my case), and I would love to know in more detail what Brucen T meant when he said : "He's probably right". Some thoughts on leveling:
 
Maybe some would consider it masochism, but I have never been even close to experiencing enough frustration with setup of this arm to want to ditch it and go back to a pivoting. I have always tried to setup according to what my ears tell me sounds best, with the theory and "correct" approach taking somewhat of a back seat. As with most things in audio there is seldom only one parameter that needs to be considered at any one time; remembering that makes setup easier. For instance, balancing the tonearm (however we each do it) affects azimuth; so, it's important to remember that when we listen for the image stability effects of getting the balance stable. I use a small bubble level on the spidle itself, not the manifold housing. I find that this gets me in the ballpark, and then I use a procedure that I know will raise some eyebrows. I raise the cartridge using the cuing wand (not the lever) and very carefully "flip" the arm/cartridge up a tiny bit so that it actually bounces up and down unto the cuing wand. While this happens there is enough time for the entire arm to be suspended mid-air without the friction of the either the LP groove nor the cuing wand itself affecting the perceived movement to one side or the other. The arm will then "show" you wether it is truly level or not, as it will travel either inwardly or outwardly during those moments that it is suspended in air; one then mechanically adjusts accordingly. The procedure should be done with arm over the outer edge of the platter, the middle, and (if possible) the inner portion of the platter. I say "if possible" because as all you ET mavens know, the cuing mechanism is designed in such a way that the cartridge is usually closer to the record surface at the inside of a record vs the outside. It's tricky and potentially dangerous (to your cartridge), but I have yet to have an accident. One can always do it with the stylus guard in place, but that doesn't work for me since I like to setup the arm so that there is little clearance between the LP and the stylus "at rest".

Then there is the issue of the dressing of the tonearm wires and their influence on perceived "balance" of the tonearm. Aside from the superior sonics, that was one of the reasons I chose AudioNote wire for my wire loom. It is extremely thin and adds little drag to the arms movement. As an experiment I performed the above-described balancing procedure with the wire loom removed, and even in spite of meticulous dressing of the extremely fine wires, it was obvious that the wires will necessarily affect the perceived "balance" of the arm, and should be compensated for when mechanically balancing. In the case of my wire loom and how I was dressing it, it was introducing a slight force to the outside of the record.

Many users have complained that the ET "goes out of adjustment" over time. That has not been my experience. After years of experiencing this "problem", I finally realized that what was happening was that since I have the table on a wall mounted shelf, the seasonal shifting of the walls and floor of my house (110 yr old Victorian) was what caused the problem, not the arm itself. I suspect that many of the reported problems are caused by this.

Long live the ET2! :-)

Frogman, I have been thinking of trying that AN tonearm wire. Do you use it in a long uninterrupted run from cartridge to phono stage, or in a short run to a connector block on the tonearm? The AN wire is lighter gauge than the screened silver wire that I currently use from cartridge to phono stage. In a four-wire balanced arrangement this screened silver wire has excellent noise rejection, but must be dressed very carefully(perhaps impossibly so) to avoid interference with free movement of the arm wand. This wire has 4 ohm resistance over a 160 cm span. Any idea what resistance the AN wire presents per foot or meter?

Dover
Ct0517 - I would not run an ET downhill, but I get the overhang argument.

Dover – oh I get it. But I will also admit I have never experimented with making the ET2 armtube go past or stop short of the target point. I did not feel a need to because of the design. I felt I would be compromising it. Add it to the audio bucket list.

Pivot arms are different though – I have experimented because of the design and gone outside of protractor lines. I am in agreement with what Geoch said in my earlier post where I linked his contribution to an alignment thread.

Dover

NOW HERE IS ANOTHER POSER to ponder :
With a pivoted arm we have an overhang. The pivot arm/stylus tip moves in an arc, which means that for every 1.8 seconds ( 1 rotation ) the stylus tip has actually moved slightly forward with each rotation.

Put another way if you put the stylus tip in the first groove, and draw a tangent to the spindle centre, then with each rotation the stylus tip will move further ahead from that tangent.

This means that to achieve the correct playback speed, with a pivoted arm, then the TT needs to speed up with each rotation.

Well this IS very interesting. Again I have never considered this with my pivot arms. A changing variable with every rotation. Hmm…...Let me think about it.. Hopefully the pivot arm “devotees” here can chime in ?

Dover I am starting to wonder how many more of these “NOW HERE IS ANOTHER POSER to ponder” posts you have lined up for us to consider ?

Dear Chris, I'm on vacations and I can only use my mobile to respond.
So :
I agree with what Dover said.
We have to accept this fact but we must also note and realize that :
For an overhang of 17mm at the full side of an LP (22min=1320sec=733rotations) the displacement per rotation is 0.0232mm.
This particular kind of progressive speed break that takes place, it is just impossible to perceived by our senses as speed variation or pitch instability, but of course we can clearly witness a unique phenomenon of a flowing without friction that results only from the allways perfect tangential TRACE and this is the part of interest, not the effect of the perfect SPEED.
Now, to be able to take any advantage of this quality, one has to take care a number of concerns that perhaps this thread brings over, (I'm sorry it is impossible to read the whole thread on my ancient mobile phone) but one of the most curious that I've witness is the cartridge great VTF, great actual physical weight and relatively low catilever's compliance. I don't know if your experiments with MM carts brings forth any issues reg. all of the above, but my own living with Piere Lurnee SL5 & Goldmund T4 with MC's was reflecting this preference. I know these were 2 bad examples of Tangential arms but this is my limited experience and this is also the reason that I abandoned the Parallel tracking chapter. I've allways had lusting over an Air Tangent but the cost of purchase was 13000 euro five years back and lefts me wanting. I'm sorry but I can't be of any help here and somehow I feel that I'm embarrassing your findings with my own contradictions. It is just a different path that I take here, (as with my speakers, my DHT line pre & SET/OTL power amps) and although not clearly a preferance for pivoted over tangential, my favorite cartridges direct me this path .

About the alignment post on Pivoted arms:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1343550512&openfrom&21&4#21
Take care

Thx Geoch for seeing my email :^) and providing input.

With an air bearing arm like the ET2 my personal experience has told me that 1) Arm/Table Design and 2)Execution, are of equal importance. I have and do run low and high compliance / VTF cartridges. The cartridge that can be seen on my SP10 in my virtual page is a Sonus Blue Gold. 50 x 10-6cm/Dyne with a triple leaf spring. Likewise I was running an XV1 for many years as well.

I am sure Frogman/Dover can add their more vast cartridge experiences than mine to my observation.

Hmmm.. since Nikola is a bit linear arm gun shy maybe I should extend the ET2 offer to you.... Just kidding I know you are very busy with family .... if interested let me know.

Cheers

Dg, I use a continuous run from cartridge clips to phono stage, where it is soldered directly to the circuit board. I don't know the resistance spec for the AN wire. I can tell you that it is by far my favorite in comparison to the VDH silver clad copper, Cardas, and Discovery which I have used in the past. I still have the Cardas and Discovery looms which I have used since getting the AN, simply to confirm the improvements with the AN. The AN is a great wire, IMO.

Thanks, Frogman, I'll give it a try. I only asked for its resistance over length to get a general sense of whether such fine filament wire makes sense for a long run. Obviously typical phono applications enlist tonearm wire for the short run from cartridge to RCA or XLR connector block.

Dear Chris,
I'm tempted to express a point of view οn this matter with the danger of an oversimplified misunderstanding by your side.

Theoretically,
I can imagine a great DD matched with a great air bearing arm, offering a great effortless precision. But this in an ideal state of mind in which every part of this set-up has designed with some proven research behind it and executed with utmost care in shape, materials in use and precision in assembly and overall construction.

I admit, I've met a critical point of my taste by using the hybrid TD124 with the SAEC WE-308SX and the Zonotone headshell. Two of the most complex designs in conjunction with my Colibri XPP gave me a vivid and lifelike presence, airy and energetic with an organic fullness which can't be found on my other top TT/tonearms. Perhaps a JN's creation of L75/Pluto 9A has all these qualities and more, but until now, the L75 with Reed 3Q or Technics EPA 100mk2 and my Symphonic Line RG6/Pluto 9A was nowhere near it's class.
A series of unfortunate events regarding my decision for turn my back to Tangential arms, includes a vivid memory of an audition of the Clearaudio Statement TT/arm/Goldfinger and a side by side comparison with the Clearaudio Master Reference/Pluto 5A/Goldfinger. It was clear for me my preference for the later as the achromatic character of the first left me uninvolving, unmoving my senses, looking for emotional charging. Τhis was a mechanical tangential arm (not an electronic but neither air bearing) without an armtube, but as straight forward as can be. I know this is a cheap excuse, but I'm very familiar with your previous TNT/ET2 set-up. When I've had the opportunity to buy this combo, I've bought the J4/SL5 instead. I wish that you didn't push me deeper to this. When I've had my DP80/SME V, a friend gave me his own DP80/Clearaudio TQ1 and this was a disaster. One of the most sterile, uncomfortable but also unstable performances when paired with my VDH Black Beauty, Grasshopper IIIM and Symphonic Line RG8 gold. But it was almost very listenable with my Insider. Yes, the ET2 never was set on my armboard, perhaps due to the fact that my DP80/SME V was allways prefered by our group when played beside the TNT/ET2. Probably because of a faulty air pressure or wrong alignment, or even because the DP80 is a hell of a TT while the TNT was a lousy plastic sucker. It is not that I don't have any experience with the tangential tracking arm, it is more that this poor ET2 was deeply buried by the great TNT of the time.
You should know better by now, but as I wanted to move into the parallel tracking arms, I've bought the J4/SL5 and after that, the Goldmund ST4 and even the Studio/T3F later.
Plastic armtubes running in parallel with the aluminium armtube, servos, elastic belts, waiting for the arm to make the mistracking in order to serve their correction, moving the whole construction to the next groove. OK let's get over these early monstrous electromechanical tonearms.

Practically,
As I'm approaching the air bearing clan of suspects, I can not see a clear view of what is possible or what is widely accepted regarding the armtube shape, material or lateral weight. The Kuzma, Simon Yorke, Air Tangent, ET 2.5, Conductor, Decca, Sindre, Terminator all have their own perception of air bearing mechanism and all things about everything. Where is the conical and progressively ascending tube inside a tube made of titanium ? Or the azimuth leveling on headshell ? While I can give my time on experimenting with the air pressure or mounting conditions, I'm not convinced for the maturity of what the industry has to offer on this subject as yet and the clinical environmental conditions of handling them regarding dust or smoking is another disturbing thing to consider.
Again my apologies for my ignorance, but I'm not a pivoted devotee only by coincidence, but more so by need.

Hi Geoch – You are always candid, honest and passionate based on your personal experiences/observations. I can appreciate that. We are all big boys here.

But let me be candid and honest too. My personal detailed TT impressions are on my page however just briefly. The VPI TNT was originally designed for the ET2. There are many out there. I owned one for many years and can say that when you say:

Probably because of a faulty air pressure or wrong alignment, or even because the DP80 is a hell of a TT while the TNT was a lousy plastic sucker.

I would put my money personally on a faulty pump and the wrong alignment part. You now have me wondering if Nikola considers his big Kuzma to be a big plastic sucker?

My old TNT modified with thread, became a new TT far surpassing the belt version in my own setup. The TNT/ET2 you heard if it was an early TNT version with a basic ET2/pump and the POS PLC controller as mine was originally – well I rate it “2 out of 10” compared to the threaded TNT/SDS version with ET2 HP arm and pump mods later. In thread form it surpassed my SP10 mkII set up and forced me to look for the next version. But it became a little higher maintenance in this form. Just like that special girlfriend. I remember our discussion on what material I should use to fill the leg cavities as I was resting them on the excellent AT 616 pneumatic footers instead of the sprung feet.

http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1325532980.jpg

Your reply back to me was to used beeswax and leadshot in the cavity. Ingenious I thought at the time but it would be really messy. I ended up filling all four of them with blue tac at one point. But it produced a sound like it was coming from the dead. Unlike death itself this was easily reversible. So we have our personal experiences. The Verdier btw took this little tonearm to unimaginable heights for me personally. The JN Lenco however I am keeping safe for when I have more time to explore it properly.

“I'm not convinced for the maturity of what the industry has to offer on this subject as yet and the clinical environmental conditions of handling them regarding dust or smoking is another disturbing thing to consider.”

You are absolutely right. IMO - The demand for these tonearms has come from what I can tell from word of mouth and forums such as this. Just look at the upgrades discussed on this forum alone. Many here now have turnkey systems. One button turns everything on. When people buy these ET2 tonearms used they do not realize that the price being paid is not the price of admission. Significant investment and more importantly time needs to be made in a proper pump system. A new ET 2.5 is not cheap, and then the pump is not included. Bruce Thigpen makes it clear on his website, that sourcing of the pump system is not included but they will offer advice and help to source one. For someone inquiring into a ET2.5 and maybe getting to the next step of ownership – this is not appealing. But there are so many pump options available with it that Bruce has no choice but to leave this option open. Unfortunately most into analog want plug and play I have found and are not willing to do their homework here.
Cheers

Dg, I use 1.5 meters of wire with no sign of any issue due to length. I suppose it's possible that a shorter length sounds even better, but the Cardas and Discovery looms are both 1.0 m and the AN is obviously superior to both; according to my tastes, of course.

Hey guys, I've mounted my Acutex 420 and thought I'd send some intial impressions. I am having a couple issues with my current wire loom that's keeping me from an optimal set-up. So please keep this in mind regarding remarks I make on cartridge performance.
My wire loom was made with longer than usual cartridge clips that require me to use an 1/8" spacer. Now that the cartridge total height has increased, I've had to make adjustments to allow for this by raising the manifold assembly in the vertical post. Only now can I get the top of cartridge body parallel to the record surface with the arc block centered in it's adjustment range. So, now the center of the spindle is farther than I'd like above the height of an lp.
The tonearm exits the back of the armwand: I constructed this with a braid/shield inside the armwand and had it exit around an 1" . This makes it impossible to get overhang exactly right with this cartridge at this point. I'm about 1/32" too far forward.
Obviously, I will correct these issues in the future.
I'm using a double leaf spring, w/ VTF @ 1.5 grams, top fo cart. body parallel with lp, running slightly above 17 psi. All remarks are comparing the just removed Dyna D3.
The first thing that hits me is the bass. It has greater authority, the bass lines are very easy to follow, has greater realism.
The midrange is natural and unforced. The treble is pleasant and has no edge. Not as extended as the Dyna.
Soundstage has nice separation, placement of performers and instuments are nice in the context of the total picture.The spread isn't as wide as the Dyna. The Dyna has more of an airly quality. Soundstage doesn't extend beyond speakers.
Doesn't do audio gymnastics, but that's is fine with me.
I'm loving it already and do not miss the Dyna.
The two lps I've listened to so far are Police "Ghost in the Machine" which was the last lp I heard befor making the switch and Shawn Colvin "Steady On". If you don't already own the latter, I can recommend it.

Bear in mind that you are not comparing a Dynavector 17D to an Acutex 420.
You are comparing a "Dynavector 17D plus Bob's Cinemag 3440 MC transformer" to an Acutex 420.

Hi Slaw, tuneful bass indeed. The Acutex on the ET makes the most realistic bass that I have ever gotten with my setup. Not just powerful (a lot of cartridges do that), the bass moves with the same rhythmic impetus as the rest of the frequency range; essential for music to "make sense". A truism among musicians is that things always start from the bottom up. Again, not the quantity of bass, but the clarity of the musical contribution of the bass "voices". Get that right, and a lot of things fall into place.

The soundstage will open up as the cartridge settles. When you say you have the "body" paralell to the LP, I hope you mean the top mounting plate and not the "nose" of the cartridge. After the cartridge settles in (takes quite a while) try increasing VTF .1-.3 grams, while at the same time raising the back of the ET a bit. Increasing the tracking force will lower VTA.

Also check the amount of torque used on all the ET adjustment bolts. A subtle effect, but I have found that if the bolts are too tight the sound is not as open and opulent as it can be. It's even easy to over tighten the bolt that secures the end cap that holds the leaf spring to the extent that the spindle tube can be squeezed and become misshapen, adversely affecting the sound.

Dover: That's true, plus the 1/2 m cable I used.

Frogman: Yes, I'm referring to the top of the mounting plate. After around 6 hours in, I'm noticing the soundstage being better integrated however sibilance has become an issue. Kind of spitty, or sizzle. I can assume that when I'm able to get optimum set-up this issue will resolve itself and the qualities that now seem very good will become even better. Thanks for the additional tips.

Frogman - that was one point I was going to mention that has not been covered, the tightening of the 4 bolts on the manifold. I tried one bolt tighter than the rest to get a single point ground effect, but ultimately came to the same conclusion as you, evenly and not too tight.
Re the cabling, my ultimate set up had the armwire running straight from the wand to a teflon block on the side of the tt plinth midway along the arm travel, ie centered. But I also turned my preamp sideways and backed it up to the deck so I only needed 6" of cable from tt to pre. I simply soldered the arm wire straight into the phono cable. The whole loom was probably not much more than 14". For some customers I would install phono inputs on the side of the preamp, if the phono was situated on the left, so they could put the preamp next to the tt and run super short looms. In my own instance 6" of raw MIT cable beats 1m of MIT Oracle ( and probably any other phono cable out there ) easily in this application. The best wire I found was a silk ofc litz, preferred to stock, Vdh silver & cardas.

Dover, I would think that the changes in the sound caused by varying the amount of torque are due to ensuing changes in the resonance characteristics of the arm. Regards.

To any owners of linear air bearing arms that use significant psi to work.

We were born with two hands. I don’t know about the others here but one of my hands is more sensitive than the other to touch and feel. I am right handed but my left hand is more sensitive.

Turn on your setup and take your more sensitive hand if you have one, and hold the air tube going into your arm with your thumb and index finger - a few inches from where it enters. Do you feel any pulsations, vibrations at all ? If you do your air delivery is not optimized and you are not hearing what your arm can do.
Likewise if when placing your ear anywhere near the ET2 tonearm you should not hear any air escaping.

Great tips Chris, and I couldn't agree more. When I started using higher pressure pumps a few years ago my Airtech surge tank literally exploded; in spite of the tank having a safety valve. The safety valve would not kick in until about 21 psi, and since my preferred psi target was 19 psi, things were generally fine. But the tank was apparently getting stressed, until it finally gave out. I constructed a new surge tank using a 6 ft length of 8" diameter PVC pipe with end caps, and used the fittings, valve, and filling from the Airtech. It works great and shows no sign of stress due to the higher pressure. Since I keep the tank/pump and regulator in the basement directly below my listening room, the tank's size is not an issue. The difference in sound with and without the use of the surge tank is very audible.

I remember around 5 years back something happened to the evaporator in my pump. I didn’t know right away. What clued me in was checking the 2nd pressure gauge/regulator that is near the arm. It is also the backup system – remember I am in the business of disaster recovery planning.

The bulb in this picture
http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1301961480.jpg

Had filled halfway with water. I thought to myself WTF is going on here? What if all this water got into the capilliaries of the manifold?

It turned out that the moisture exhaust tube in the pump – its outlet was dirty/blocked and it had backed up filled with water and was sending all moisture down the tube to the 2nd regulator/filter. A little CLR on the metal outlet fixed the problem.

WARNING to New Owners and OLD.

Do not buy a used ET2 from someone that has not been using a proper moisture filter. Unless your willing to spend an afternoon and do the simple cleaning procedure (documented in the manual) of scrubbing the capilliaries. I did this for fun with my first ET2 9 years ago. Its like giving your ET2 new lungs. Page 42. Pipe cleaner and isopropol. If you are having problems running your HP ET2 arm at a higher psi. Your capilliaries need to be cleaned. Look here first. Do the procedure.

Frogman - A few more of these type of posts should be enough to scare away the poseurs from wanting this tonearm. Good thing Bruce did not use shiny silver and gold parts or we would have a real problem.

To new owners of an ET2
NEVER change a cartridge with the pump running.
Else probably risk a fate to your cartridge - similar to trying to walk down slimy, slippery, wood deck steps in the pouring rain in summer – without a handrail.

Frogman: I had the exact same thing happen with my Airtech tank.
Chris: I like to use lint free swabs for maintainence issues, from spindle/manifold/ to TT bearing cleaning.
Also, I use Techspray isopropyl alcohol that's 99.9% pure. Evaporates much faster. All available at Parts Express.

I'm a believer yeah yeah yeaaaaaah, I'm a believer! It's over 15 hours in on the Acutex. My excitement has me reporting back already. Right now, there are two areas my former Dyna set-up surpassed the Acutex. The silences or black background had a sort of erie quality before and the sibilances were handled slightly better. This little cartridge has replaced over $2000.00 worth of equipment, leaving no doubt that it's superior with this arm in a less than optimal set-up. The soundstage really is impressive. I want to say vivid but that might imply too much of something. I'll just say the performers are more "present" without being overimphasized, not beyond the front plane of the speakers. I feel it's more revealing of minute changes in VTA or VTF.

Another tip from downunder - I found plugging the pumps into isolation transformers rather than directly into the mains smoothed the sound out quite a lot even with dual pumps/surge tank etc.

Slaw, IME on Trans-Fi linear tonearm the M420 STR's sibilance gradually resolves over 50-75 hrs. What little remains of it thereafter is an acceptable compromise, considering the eyes-wide-open performance that communicates everything that's great about vinyl.

Dave: I hear what your saying.

Regarding changing the cartridge with the air pump on- I made a simple latch that locks the cueing shift to the cueing eccentric when you don't want the arm to move around on you. Using the latch with the pump on when changing cartridges eliminates any wear to the spindle or bearing while also eliminating cartridge damage. The spindle, at least, is hard anodized, but it's good piece of mind to always have the pump running when moving the arm... even the slightest bit.

“when changing cartridges eliminates any wear to the spindle or bearing “

Hi Ketchup.

You can’t put wear on the ET2 spindle or bearing. The spindle can only be damaged by driving over it with your car. Well - I am just joking here of course - but just trying to paint a picture of how indestructible the design is. I realize that moving the spindle back and forth in the manifold feels “very wrong” and “rough” without the pump. It feels like you are damaging something. But you are not hurting anything and actually helping it if you can believe it. You are actually encouraged to do this a little on new arms to help them settle in.
Now by tightening bolts too much you can make parts change shape. Loosening them up and letting the arm relax will fix it. My first ET2 was a little deformed this way from previous owners.

As an update.

I have been on the phone with Bruce. I am sending my 420str to him to listen to. I am hoping to get his impressions here – well if not first hand at least in the 3rd party.

I will be putting my MC back on this weekend after 110 hours no sibilance issues whatsoever with my 420 str. The moment of truth has arrived for me and this little cartridge.

Slaw - good to hear the 420 is sounding good. When you feel you have it sounding as best as possible if at all possible please remove the shim and try to finesse the wires to get the cartridge on without a shim. To compare. The arm tube is CF but the head of it is not. I just realized this the other day. Its a resonance hobby. Adding materials complicates things. I side on the minimalist approach and trying to get it right that way - fewer layers the better - just my opinion.

It would make for a great comparison if you are able to tell us the difference in sound it makes. FWIW - I tried a shim initially - one of those aluminum shims from a headshell on one of the pivot arms. It muddied the highs on my setup.

****When you feel you have it sounding as best as possible if at all possible please remove the shim and try to finesse the wires to get the cartridge on without a shim. To compare. The arm tube is CF but the head of it is not. I just realized this the other day. Its a resonance hobby. Adding materials complicates things. I side on the minimalist approach and trying to get it right that way - fewer layers the better - ****

Ditto!

I look forward to Bruce T's comments!

You can’t put wear on the ET2 spindle or bearing. The spindle can only be damaged by driving over it with your car. I realize that moving the spindle back and forth in the manifold feels “very wrong” and “rough” without the pump. It feels like you are damaging something. But you are not hurting anything and actually helping it if you can believe it. You are actually encouraged to do this a little on new arms to help them settle in.

If the spindle is so indestructible and tough, how can simply moving the spindle with no air benefit? The clearances between the spindle and manifold are set at the factory. You do not want to change the clearances. The arm is ready to go out of the box and requires no additional "fitting" by moving the spindle by the customer. That would be a poor design. I will be happy to eat my words if you can provide some proof that moving the spindle with no air does any good. Did Bruce say this to you?

Chris: I fully agree with you. This was the easiest way to get the Acutex up and running. My cartidge clips aren't bendable so my thought is most likely either another wire loom or surgery to my present one. Not sure when I'll get around to it.

The arm is ready to go out of the box and requires no additional "fitting" by moving the spindle by the customer. That would be a poor design.

Kevin - Have you ever come across any analog product that did not require additional fitting or adjustment ? All conversations I have had with Bruce have pretty much been a reflection of what is in the manual already. For this subject see pages 39-40 for the answers . When I got back my 2nd ET2 arm as a 2.5 I can remember a couple of times the arm started skipping on me, like it was binding. The pump pressure seemed ok. Sliding the spindle up and down a couple of times without pressure seemed to help my setup. It never did it again.

As far as good and poor designs are concerned.

IMO – A worst case scenario with an ET2 tonearm is if someone has totally neglected this tonearm after 20 years and actually allowed buildup to occur on the spindle – Now you can take a knife to it and scrap it off, and then clean it with alcohol again. Read pages 39 – 40 in the manual. And bring it back to operating condition. This to me represents not a poor, good or great but brilliant design. The tonearm will never wear out – it’s a lifetime of use.

In another case – take a person that loves their TT with a soft suspension that has microscopic movements. This person would say the ET2 is a bad design for this table. I would agree. So you can have good and bad designs for every application. If someone was praising an analog component as the "next best thing" "perfect design" - to me it can never be perfect because the medium is faulty. No two records are alike.

I am amazed we can get good sound at all ? That’s probably what keeps me intrigued with it. The disbelief.

When are you going to get your ET2 up and running again?

Chris: Your comment about this hobby having alot to do with resonant behavior got me thinking of some reasons the Acutex may be more suitable with the ET. Setup at proper overhang, the armwand is slid (back) fairly far within it's adjustment range, therefore to me it seems that gives the armwand increased structural ridgitity thereby reducing resonances. Of course, I have limited experience with cartridges compared to most of you.

Just to say one more thing about listening to the Acutex... I'm enjoying listening more than I have in some time. The album sides seem to be over with before I know it. To me, this is probably due to the "ease of presentation" provided by this cartridge and the totally relaxed feeling I get while listening.

The weekends... I got it!
I have around 21 hours on the Acutex. Still loving it. I'm becoming one with this transducer and therefore am more aware of what's going on now, that it's becoming of age.
Starting to get slightly annoying in the mid to upper, mid-range. Not really any other issue, well, a little sibilance.
I know exactly what's going on , because I've experienced it in my system and other's, with different cartridges.
If you look back at my intitial posts, you'll see that one of two caveats I mentioned in setting this cartridge up with my current wire loom was not having the center spindle height close to the lp surface. This, as explained in the manual, is very important. I know from personal experience that this will cause the very issue I'm currently experiencing with the Acutex. Annoying in the mid to upper, mid-range, also it can result in splashy treble. Fixing my cartridge clips so I can ultimately lower the armwand assembly at the same time as acheiving top of cartridge being parallel with lp, will absolutely take care of this issue.

Remember this turntable link I posted a little while back.

Nakamichi ET 2.5

Well its up for sale :^)

Just having my morning coffee and I came across it. No affiliation with this at all. Just thought it was kinda cool to come cross it.

The seller has no feedback, AND it's Audiogon. Also, altho it's a rare collectible and there is no real market value, the asking price is about 2X recent sales prices for this item of which I am aware.

Last one I saw sold for US$2500 on Ebay only a few months ago, cant remember what arm it had on it. So the thing is worth about $5-6k, plus some premium for condition. Based on the sellers perception of value maybe I should offer him my Final Audio for $20k plus the Nakamichi. I think the CT would be better.