Great link Chris, I had forgotten about it. Definitive comparison of the Acutex 3xx and 4xx.
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 ?
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Hey Guys, I've been quietly thinking of the next step in regards to my set-up with the Acutex. I've had several thoughts on it after re-reading your posts and thinking of how to better dress a wire loom. I still like my over the spindle option but have new thoughts on the support mechanism and wire/clips. I want to implement the new support along with different cartridge clips first, so I can get proper cart set-up with my old wire loom, before building a completely new wire loom. I also want to completely do away with the braid/shield I currently use. I'm thinking of a combo of silk/cotton tubing and/or teflon tubing as part of the support structure and vibration control scheme. Any thoughts from you guys would be helpful. |
Slaw – fwiw - here are my thoughts on the ET2 loom so far for me. When this thread started I had many questions about the wire loom. The options seems daunting. I had mounted the arm multiple times on different TT setups and found the full plinths to always be the biggest PITA for this tonearm. On the old stock HW19MKIV and TNT the wire used to go down through a hole in the plinth ! What I have found personally since is that on an arm pod / pillar or tower, its good to get the “SMILE” half circle loop where the wire exits the arm. There seems to be minimal wire movement this way with this tonearm when leveled properly. I find with this half loop I can add enough blue tac to the counterweight to make the arm free float – then I can touch the wire in the loop around with my finger and the armtube does not move, regardless of its position over the record. So for a full plinth this setup is more difficult to do. Frogman has his set up this way. I hope he doesn’t mind me posting his pic again. With a smile :^) http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1337980360.jpg If I ever put my ET2 arm on a full plinth again I would do something similar so the wires comes out of structure like a bridge pillar to form that half circle - smile. Now with an arm tower/pillar or armpod it can just hang off the end of the armtube to create that loop the other end connecting directly to the phono stage. It makes it really easy. Is there a better way ? Thoughts ? My looms are naked and I have no noise with MM and MC. I attribute that to the place I got them from and the fact the preamps are right next to the tonearms. BTW - If you want to know if your wire loom/TT/Preamp is up to par mount that 420str on a direct drive or idler where the motor is inches away from that cartridge. It will tell you right away if your setup is ok or has issues. Wires, TT motor related, other. Its a great test cartridge in this respect. Slaw - had a look at your virtual page setup – your loom seems to mimic the Kuzma Airline arm ? Up and over as you say. How is it working ? In the pic it looks more rigid this way ? I also saw the motor mount for your VPI table. Did you make that ? It looks gorgeous. The thread drive is working out well ? Cheers |
BTW - If you want to know if your wire loom/TT/Preamp is up to par mount that 420str on a direct drive or idler where the motor is inches away from that cartridge. It will tell you right away if your setup is ok or has issues. Wires, TT motor related, other. Its a great test cartridge in this respect.Interesting Chris....as I have also found the 420STR to act much like a LOMC on my Victor DD in its susceptibility to 'feedback' when the volume is turned up? This despite the fact that the phono stage gain is set to the low MM value which, incidentally displays no such 'feedback' with 'normal' MMs? Do you have any thoughts on why this should be the case with the 420STR? |
Ct0517, on my TransFi the "loom problem" is compounded by slightly thicker discretely shielded wires, and by the extra wires required for a balanced circuit. The feather-lite short wand is particularly vulnerable to fouling. http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1284313864.jpg The gantry grommet is about half way across the LP. The loom is dressed like an egg-beater. It expands and contracts as it moves, with the force vectors of the discrete wires approximately cancelling. |
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