Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Guys, I was under the impression that the MM cognoscenti had rapidly moved past the Acutex 420, following its appearance and then disappearance in the market place. I know that Raul was not enchanted by it and seemed to far prefer his "blunt nose" 3XX series Acutex, which he likes even better than the late pointy 3XX series. Do these posts represent a renaissance of the STR420? I caved in and bought one too, from Italy. It still rests in its original box, because of the underwhelming remarks made on the MM thread. Was going to sell it, once I can overcome my inertia.

Has any Acutex-ian tried the Saturn V headshell? It may not fit the 4XX series; it was made for the late 3XX series.

Lew, mine too sat in the box for months because of some (not all) underwhelming remarks. My experience so far proves, once again, that even the cognoscenti are mistaken at times; especially when they are not patient enough to allow for proper break-in. As has been pointed out, however, there appears to be a special synergy between this cart and linear tracking arms. I encourage you to try it, and please report back with your findings.

Hi all,
I'm a big fan pof the ET2 modded even though I dont run it, went to unipivot primarily to get rid of pumps etc. You have to read the thread in WBF, I simply cannot believe the sheer ignorance of many of the contributors, the worst being Astor and Lavigne. Not much hope for credible audio reviews from these folk. These guys are idiots and I doubt much of their gear is set up correctly from their lack of understanding of basic physics.

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?5653-Linear-tracking-Turntables!

PS If you have low tolerance levels dont bother reading it. Make sure you have your sense of humour on board.

Hi Lew – I didnt expect to see u here based on your aversion to tonearms with pumps, tubing , etc… Welcome to the thread.

As an aficionado of Direct Drive turntables that you are, I present this ET2 setup just for you.

BTW-This setup looks familiar to me :^) ?

I agree with Frogman and say go ahead and put the the Acutex 420 on your….. DV505.

But be patient, do setup one day, take a rest on 2nd day, on the third day find maybe something nice. It was a difficult cartridge to set up on a pivot arm for me. It required a lot of patience. Now I realize for some with 50+ MM cartridges “patience” represents an eternity. Some of you I have learned very recently go through multiple headshell / cartridge changes - per LP side !

BTW - I have tried the 420 in a JMW 12, DV505 and FR64s. To me the 420 being a very "undamped" cartridge is a good test of wires, grounding, as well as energy transfer. I said on the MM thread to also put it on a tall aluminium pole in your backyard. You may be able to pickup some Balkan radio with it ?

Dover – do you know who the Kharma fellow is ? – would love for him to join here.

I share his thoughts on antiskate, but definitely not his experience level - just on Post #101.

Kharma on WBF re: Dover's previous link.

"Please note that I have not mentioned skating forces. But, I should because skating force summarizes the problems with a pivoted design. I have owned and operated professional audio repair shops for 13 years. During this time I examined thousands of styli under a purpose designed stylus microscope. I examined every stylus that came into my shop. Without exception I could identify if the stylus was used on a pivoted arm or on a linear arm. The stylus wear on those used on pivoted arms was always non-symmetrical due to poorly compensated skating force. And skating force is ALWAYS poorly compensated because there is no single value that works due to the fact that skating force is constantly changing because of friction due to groove modulation. OTH, the wear on styli that have spent their lives on linear arms, even cheap ones, is always symmetrical. This is obvious under the microscope. My customers were always amazed when I showed them these results.”

This is fascinating info. An eye opener. What knowledge this fellow must have. If he sees this please share your knowledge here.

The other fellow seemed to be apparently be trying to run high pressure on an original regular manifold ET2 - from just the info available on the thread anyway. A big no no…

Frogman, I become very greedy and bought 4 of those 420
carts but was devasteted by Raul's comment. To get rid of
them I used your (first positive) comment in my listing...
I forget the first rule for any component whatever: listen
first for yourself. I am happy to mention that I still own
the last one. But to avoid any injustice to Raul I need
also to mention that all (other) carts he recommended
and I bought are exactly as he described them. So my quess is
that his 420 specimen was defective. BTW I sold the one with
'your recommendation' for $200 to Vic from Transfi Audio ,
the producer of Transfi rim drive TT and 'Terminator' linear tonearm.
He was so impressed that he also bought one more from but this one for 200 Euro.
So, in some sense, I made a huge profit thanks to Raul.

Regards,