Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Banquo363 - Understood, but bringing it inside would serve as my wife's daily reminder that I'm not 'normal'; we don't want that.

This is a niche hobby and NORMAL, imo is very subjective and relative to the situation.

For example in this comparison ....

What shall we consider more normal here ?

1)
The Air pump placed strategically in the master bedroom "double closet" right next to the wife's sexy red shoes.
A clear transparent tube line following the phone line along the wall hidden from view.
Entering the music room as one aquarium tube.

OR

2)

THIS

All together now ...Holy Moly !

Photo courtesy of

Leo Yeh - Munich Show 2015

The 2000 has 3 taps, so might as well use them.

Reserve the third line and save it for yourself ....for when the music takes your breath away.....

Ct0517
Thanks for your response. I have my Silentaire compressor in another room and also wanted a turnkey operation so I could turn it on & off from my listening room. The solution is one of the wireless ( rf not infrared ) remote switched outlets that you can buy online. Press a button on the remote and on goes your compressor. Another press and it's off. If you have an in line pressure gauge near your et-2 you can tell when the compressor is on and off. Just make sure that your compressor is within the specified operating range of the remote.

The way the ET-2 is normally wired has always been an issue for me when deciding how best to mount it on my TT. Because the tonearm wires are soldered directly to the RCA jacks in the RCA box or mounting plate and the wire is supposed to be fed through a hole in the armboard to create a loop, installing or removing the spindle or manifold requires desoldering the wires and pulling them out of the hole. This is a major PITA and doesn't make installation an easy process.
While I realize that adding additional connections to the audio chain may have negative consequences, this may be balanced against making installation, removal and adjustment an easier process.
My solution was instead of soldering the tonearm wires to the RCA jacks, I instead soldered them to a 4 pin Lemo plug ( the same one used by VPI on their Memorial Tonearms ). I obtained a VPI Tonearm junction box which I mounted to the top of the plinth with Velcro tape. It was then easy to mount and align the mounting post to my armboard without worrying about the manifold-spindle assembly. I then mounted the manifold assembly to the mounting post & aligned it. I plugged the Lemo connector into the junction box & it works fine. I can unplug the Lemo connector & remove the whole manifold assembly in a minute. While there are the additional connections created by using the Lemo connectors, the convenience in mounting & adjusting far outweigh any sonic degradation for me. YMMV.

Bigalt,
I run the wire straight out of the arm tube, looped under the bearing spindle/armlift rod to a teflon block on the the side of the TT (this is mounted behind the lift spindle and halfway along to minimise wire tension when playing. The wire does not enter the bearing spindle at all. I also use a silk insulated copper litz which is much less springy than the plastic/teflon insulated tonearm wires like Cardas etc.
There are no connectors at all between cartridge pins and RCA/phono connectors. If you back the preamp up to the side of the TT you can get the total loom down to around 16".
For maintenance all I have to do is unplug the phono and undo 1 screw holding the teflon block and the whole arm tube comes off complete with wiring loom and cartridge.

Bigalt - The way the ET-2 is normally wired has always been an issue for me when deciding how best to mount it on my TT. Because the tonearm wires are soldered directly to the RCA jacks in the RCA box or mounting plate and the wire is supposed to be fed through a hole in the armboard to create a loop, installing or removing the spindle or manifold requires desoldering the wires and pulling them out of the hole. This is a major PITA and doesn't make installation an easy process.

The first post on this thread asked about wiring recommendations. Everyone here that has upgraded their wiring arrangement agrees the standard wiring setup is compromised. But lets also understand that everything is the way it is for a reason and to understand why this was done "wiring arrangement", one only need look at the objectives of the particular item in question. So lets take a couple of steps back for a minute.

For the ET2. At the front of the manual. PAGE 3

"It is a uniquely conceived tonearm, designed to be installed on turntables with universal mounts. It can be adapted to both solid mount (direct drive) turntables and spring suspended mount turntables. Its flexibility in many cases allows it to be mounted on many turntables without the need for special hardware. "

The above tells me that this Audio product is not something being made in limited quantities for a select market like many other Audio products. The purpose/objective here is to get it to the most people possible to enjoy it. Numbers sourced from Bruce and documented on this thread, show thousands made. When you distribute a product like this the wiring arrangement needs to satisfy many applications. That means some standard setup, compromises and all, need to be arrived at that satisfies most conditions. The standard wiring setup compromises the ET2 arm in two very different ways.

1) the number of solder connections
2) the wiring arrangement physically affecting the operation (movement) of the arm.

Not even Bruce himself uses the standard wiring arrangement as was clear in his 420 str cartridge review here. He goes straight into the preamp from the cartridge leads. My understanding is all professional reviewers listened to this arm with the standard wiring arrangement. Even in the standard compromised wiring arrangement the arm was very well reviewed.

Bigalt - In the end the important thing.... is that it is very good that you found a solution that works for you.....for now. :^)

For me from personal experience a happy face loop coming off the armtube works best. The full flat plinth presents more challenges to achieve this as you need to elevate the wiring to start; to allow for a happy face loop. The ET2 wiring is a natural for turntable setups that use armboards/pods that are elevated with the platter to allow for a natural happy face loop.