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 ?
128x128ct0517
But then the ET locked up and it began spitting out water.


8^0

I have known of some people who pull off the air hose at the manifold casing - pour some isopropyl down the tube - reconnect and start up the air. This must be the equivalent of drinking home made Slivovitch. (google it). Anyone reading pls take the manifold apart and clean per the manual if needed.

I was lucky with my ET tonearm water incident. I casually looked over and saw the water trap bowl was what looked like 3/4 full ! Normally there is nothing there as the timeter drains all moisture. The nozzle on the drain tube on the timeter pump had plugged up and was not exhausting water any more so water starting going down the airline. Soaking the exhaust nozzle in CLR fixed it.

Actually, the same sort of thing happened to my wife’s car. She found the passenger side footwell soaked one day. Turns out pine needles/leaves entered and blocked the AC drain tube on her car - entered from passenger side front windshield area. Dealer wanted to charge me an hours labor to fix it so I took off the footwell carpeting/panel and saw the the drain hose coming through and exiting below the floor. Pulled it out, used wire and blew out debris with air. 


high humidity pulling down the bias voltage on the stats, a known issue.


Richard
I learned about this about 5 years ago, The Quad 57’s were kept in a Toronto space with no air conditioning / humidity control in summer. The first time I experienced it I thought they were Kaput. I spoke with Ken at Electrostatic Solutions who explained the phenomena to me. They left that space shortly after that and came home. The other interesting thing I learned from Ken going by memory, is that the the Quad 63’s and 57’s are opposite builds. The 57’s are actually a hardy build in comparison to the 63’s in regards to humidity; even though high humidity can make them sound like transistor radios it doesn’t hurt them. The Quad 63’s in a couple years of high humidity will self destruct/fall apart.




Richard et al, I came across a good video showing the Timeter pump in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzNO_iYeopc

With this one the two air outputs have been set up differently. Not for an air bearing tonearm :^) I found this video while looking for a second pump.

The video is really good at showing how loud it is, and its operation. A close up shot of the performance gauge can be seen. It’s the indicator of the air quality going out - Amazon humid - to Arizona dry - depending on the patient’s requirements. In this case Arizona please for the ET 2.5 baby. Baby is a good word I think, since my 19 PSI ET 2.5 from Bruce is younger, tighter, and very picky with what it’s inhaling. More so than my older ET 2.0 with High Pressure Manifold in the other room.

If you watch the fellow start it - it builds PSI and when used with my main ET 2.5; pump adjustments can be made so the performance gauge needle stays in the green - indicating dry air output. It uses 4 heavy duty caster wheels which allow for it to be easily moved around when not in use, and placed in the room of your choice when listening to records. It’s not a good idea to leave it running in your wife’s TV room. I want a second one; everything seems to come in two’s for me. But the shipping is too damn much to justify for those I have found. As you know my older Timeter pump has had some past surgery. So would be nice to have a backup. I laughed when the guy in the video showed a close up of the hours count on that one.

Cheers .
***Parts availability announcement***

I was emailing Bruce about the thread size for the air inlet fitting when, in passing, he let me know that newly manufactured aluminum joints are now available. The price will be $225, incl. shipping.

I run mainly MM carts and I've been meaning to acquire an aluminum arm wand (I own the carbon and magnesium wands) to see whether it would better match with my carts. So, I ask Bruce between the alu wand and alu joint which should I get first.

He answers, "I would go with the aluminum joint first, I think this will make the biggest improvement in the low frequency sound with a MM cartridge."

Sold!

I know that contributors to this thread once got  together and did a short run on the joint. Perhaps they can discuss the merits of Bruce's assertion?

Incidentally, the air inlet fitting has 10-32l threads (not sure what the 'l' denotes, but I do know that 10-32unf does NOT work) and, like the leaf springs, Bruce offers them for free. This is magnanimous of him especially given that the fitting was impossible for me to find.




The price will be $225, incl. shipping.

How is Bruce able to makes these Joints, aka the "Gooseneck" for this price?  Machine shop rates are $150 an hour.
We ran into much higher estimate costs to do a run of Goosenecks as discussed on this thread a while back. So the aluminum Mounting Base and Joint/Gooseneck are about the same price.
Is the Gooseneck not more of challenge (labor & material wise) to make ?


Hi there,

I recently acquiref a used VPI TNT MK3 with ET2 arm. It came with Medo VP0140 pump, two filters and an Airtech surge tank.

Since the VP0140 pump is rated for 30mins operation. I planned to get a used Medo 0201 pump and fit a pressure regulator as well. Then I will place the 0201 in an enclosure.

My question is the sequence of hooking these up.

1) Pump->Filter->Regulator->Surge Tank->Arm
Or
2) Pump->Filter->Surge Tank->Regulator->Arm

Which one is correct?

Thanks
Tequila