This is the story of an audiophile called Dorothy and her ET2, a tonearm she has owned for many years.
For the first few years she used a light MM cartridge and used only 2 of the 4 lead weights supplied positioned in the middle of the I beam. “It looks visually balanced better this way to me”, Dorothy said. She did have a quick skim through the ET2 manual but ....oh!..... so many pages ....some really technical “guy” must have written that for sure she thought. Anyway.....how she set it up sounded good to her... so she left it this way for a few years.
Then one day she decided to buy an MC cartridge. She noticed it was quite a bit heavier. Instead of moving the existing weight further out on the ET2 I Beam (as the ET2 manual says to do) - she put on the other two weights she had stored in her drawer all this time; so they could meet up around the middle of the I-beam again. She was after all comfortable with this middle of the I Beam positioning. “It just looks visually better balanced this way” Dorothy said. It sounded good again. She was happy.
Then later on she was reading on the internet about some ET2 owners who just couldn’t stop fiddling with their ET2’s.
"Must be all guys for sure” Dorothy thought to herself.
But she was intrigued about how they were discussing the aspect of loading up the weight on the I-Beam. They were putting more thought into it; putting just enough weight on so that the weight was at the end of the Ibeam – no matter what cartridge. Some of these guys were even crazy enough to change cartridge screw sizes to accomplish this.
“Well” she thought to herself “maybe there was a screw loose somewhere else with some of them?”
But she was intrigued ....she could resist no longer. She tried it and did what was required to get the weight out at the end of that “pirate plank” even though it did just did not look right to her.
Lo and behold more music “sprang” forward ! She said to herself “all these years I was listening to my ET2 and I was loving it; But now... well I love my ET2 even more!”
She felt good about herself.
Does this story have a lesson ?
Yes, Dorothy felt good about herself, but it wasn’t because her favorite songs sounded even better to her.... which they did; no, it wasn’t the main reason. You see Dorothy always knew that she could listen to her favorite songs anywhere; even in the car and they would always put a smile on her face. It was about the music itself after all.
No, what made her feel real good – was that she had learned something and understood more about how her ET2 actually worked. That learning and knowledge is what made her really feel good. She then said to herself “maybe I should read the ET2 manual that guy called Bruce wrote? ”
Right after thinking that another thought came into her head. “If only my boyfriend was as easy to tune as this ET2”
For the first few years she used a light MM cartridge and used only 2 of the 4 lead weights supplied positioned in the middle of the I beam. “It looks visually balanced better this way to me”, Dorothy said. She did have a quick skim through the ET2 manual but ....oh!..... so many pages ....some really technical “guy” must have written that for sure she thought. Anyway.....how she set it up sounded good to her... so she left it this way for a few years.
Then one day she decided to buy an MC cartridge. She noticed it was quite a bit heavier. Instead of moving the existing weight further out on the ET2 I Beam (as the ET2 manual says to do) - she put on the other two weights she had stored in her drawer all this time; so they could meet up around the middle of the I-beam again. She was after all comfortable with this middle of the I Beam positioning. “It just looks visually better balanced this way” Dorothy said. It sounded good again. She was happy.
Then later on she was reading on the internet about some ET2 owners who just couldn’t stop fiddling with their ET2’s.
"Must be all guys for sure” Dorothy thought to herself.
But she was intrigued about how they were discussing the aspect of loading up the weight on the I-Beam. They were putting more thought into it; putting just enough weight on so that the weight was at the end of the Ibeam – no matter what cartridge. Some of these guys were even crazy enough to change cartridge screw sizes to accomplish this.
“Well” she thought to herself “maybe there was a screw loose somewhere else with some of them?”
But she was intrigued ....she could resist no longer. She tried it and did what was required to get the weight out at the end of that “pirate plank” even though it did just did not look right to her.
Lo and behold more music “sprang” forward ! She said to herself “all these years I was listening to my ET2 and I was loving it; But now... well I love my ET2 even more!”
She felt good about herself.
Does this story have a lesson ?
Yes, Dorothy felt good about herself, but it wasn’t because her favorite songs sounded even better to her.... which they did; no, it wasn’t the main reason. You see Dorothy always knew that she could listen to her favorite songs anywhere; even in the car and they would always put a smile on her face. It was about the music itself after all.
No, what made her feel real good – was that she had learned something and understood more about how her ET2 actually worked. That learning and knowledge is what made her really feel good. She then said to herself “maybe I should read the ET2 manual that guy called Bruce wrote? ”
Right after thinking that another thought came into her head. “If only my boyfriend was as easy to tune as this ET2”