Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

ncampbell - for consideration.

Take a small piece of square wood thick enough to hold a wood screw and long enough to go through the ET2 mounting plate center hole.

Attach the ET2 mounting plate to this free standing piece of wood.

Assemble the ET2 .....WITHOUT cartridge, onto the mounting plate then while securely holding the tonearm, proceed to experiment and find the best position on the plinth.

When the best spot is found for the tonearm. Use some green painters tape or like, to mark the 4 positions of the wood on the plinth.

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Now remove the tonearm from the mount plate and the mount plate from the piece of wood.

Put the piece of wood inside the lines of the painters tape.

The hole in the wood tells you about where you will need to drill the small tonearm mounting hole, on the tonearm armboard for the center bolt to hold the tonearm.

After doing the measuring exercise 3 more times.....then feel confident to drill the mounting hole. 

Please see the picture below.
At the top left is the original Linn tonearm mounting point. This is where I first mounted the ET tonearm.
The new ET arm mounting point is called out. I prefer this mount point because it is between the suspension points and is directly above the point at which the sub-chassis connects tot he armboard.


https://photos.app.goo.gl/LQdv3P7Uw3RZf3FWA

An ET 2 on a Linn LP 12 is a rare sight. Bruce Thigpen said a few have done it. I’m sure there are many LP 12 owners (Linnies), and ET 2 owners out there, that would be interested in seeing pics of this project.

Brooks Berdan may have mounted more ET arms on tables than any other human. His first preferred table for the arm was the Oracle Delphi, for which he created a mod to keep the table's mass stable as the ET moved across the LP (Brooks had training in race car suspensions). He then mounted a lot of the arm on VPI's, first the HW-19 and then the TNT. Those table's higher mass provided a very stable platform for the arm. Brooks wasn't that impressed with the Linn, though he was an expert at setting it up. Brooks' preferred pivoted arm was the Graham.

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Quantity versus Quality setups.
Dealers / Reviewers got to about a 6 or 7/10 tonearm capability on setup. I base this on the setup that was done on my previous HW19 MKIV and TNT turntables which both came with ET2’s.

The ET2 ’s needed to be shipped on turntables for customers, in a user friendly setup. This affected the wiring arrangement and I Beam length (dust covers), amongst other things. Dealers gave a cursory glance to the I Beam setup - meaning - the motto was to throw all the weight on, even if was not all needed, and let the lead blocks end up..... wherever they end up. Hmmm.... single leaf spring with all that lead.

Have you, Eric, ever witnessed this type of I Beam phenomena ?

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Anyway, that was the setup level that dealers and reviewers got to, and heard, and was distributed to customers; Still the arm was rated as one of the best based on this. And like all good business goals based on volume. "Hey Bruce, send me some more arms please" "Ah and don’t fret over this CD thing everybody is raving about ."

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Now imagine if these dealers/ reviewers, got to hear the tonearm, with the setups discussed in this thread ? How many dealers , reviewers, in later years have even actually heard the latest ET 2.5 with Mag Wand - Optimized Long I beam , Single Shot wiring with an MC cart?
Single Shot ? Yes, even Bruce sets up with single shot in his personal set up..

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Eric, you represent on this thread a type of enigma to me. You see, from your postings, you are obviously one of Bruce’ biggest fans. Yet for some reason you have never chosen to own the product that this thread is about. So you can’t contribute direct end user tonearm experience. A real shame because you are passionate. 8^(

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Audiophile Trivia Answer

The TNT was designed for the ET2 when Harry and Bruce had a business relationship.

attached Pic from the Robert Redford Movie.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WR7wMt5bD7tVeYPC6

Then Harry brought out his own tonearm for the TNT - and guess what - it didn’t fit on the plinth ! I know , I owned it.

I also made a full plinth years ago. And I put the ET2 and the JMW 12 tonearms on it

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LXD18UujFqVxyoDA9

Cheers