Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Interesting how yours sound so different than mine do

Frogman I shot a short video (it was dark - 3:00am) with my phone and the sounds were the same as the last two clips in your links. 1) Frog croaking and 2) Bull frog. But the phone and my laptop as I mentioned earlier are limited in what they can achieve.

Just a thought
I have taken the same audio gear right down to the cables and placed into multiple rooms. This included different locations. building types even on different power grids. This was done due to job travel, moving to a different house, ...
The resulting music was always different and most noticeable to me in the bass (waves) and how they interacted with the room volume, materials, etc...
So, if we take two same frogs and relocate to two very different areas. Maybe one is placed in a marshy type environment with long grasses that help filter. The other near a smooth lake surrounded by hills. I think the two frogs will sound different to someone that is at least some distance away; so that he/she is able to hear the influence to the sound from the immediate surrounding area?

Is this influence/effect not known as "the Room" - in this Audio Hobby of ours ?

But if you put a microphone up close to a frog (before the surrounding area can influence their sound. They should sound the same, no ?

btw - I always have a problem with the use of effect and affect. :^(

Seems everyone wants to discuss component gear all the time on these forums. The Room aspect is rarely discussed it seems to me. I feel it deserves its own Audio category.

I am back up north again. I have title to a piece of property here and pay property taxes. But while I am here I have always felt a visitor to the wild life that surrounds me. It is their place so I just try to fit in.

****while I am here I have always felt a visitor to the wild life that surrounds me. It is their place so I just try to fit in. ****

Thought about your comment yesterday. We stocked our pond with trout at the beginning of the summer, thinking that the bullfrogs could use some company :-) They are (were?) fairly mature fish at about 8-10 in. Well, over the course of the summer it appeared that we had fewer and fewer fish in the pond. We weren't sure since its a fairly large pond and quite deep. Our dog had earlier been very interested in a spot near the pond where I found a tail fin; "fee-fi-fo-fum". Well, yesterday, as I sat on my porch swigging Moosehead Ale (really) and listened to Brahms' Fourth I witnessed an extraordinary sight. As I looked out over the pond a Great Blue Herron came swooping down from the trees, dove into the pond and snagged one of my Rainbows. Beautiful creature and much larger than I imagined, never having seen one up close. What made me think of your comment is the fact that I had never seen one near my property, but only some distance away where there is a large lake. I have no problem providing a $4 lunch to a Herron and the sight of it was more than worth it, but makes me wonder just how well I am "fitting in".

Wow...Gourmet "farm raised" ? trout for lunch.

Me thinks, he (Blue Herron) thinks, you fit in really well Frogman :^)

Frogman - I have no problem providing a $4 lunch to a Herron and the sight of it was more than worth it

$4.00 US dollars per 8 - 10 inch trout.
4 US bucks, is now $5.26 Canadian dollars. Does anybody need a new definition for slippery slope ?

A tidbit
Trout (lake trout variety ) are very sensitive to oxygen levels. Up our way since at least 1988 when we bought up there, all lake trout cottage lakes have been designated as limited future build. if someone owns just land (no cottage) whether 1/2 acre or even 200; they are only allowed to put up one building. Even one place can be challenging with the steep rocky terrain; but cottagers can be quite inventive.

Well, yesterday, as I sat on my porch swigging Moosehead Ale (really) and listened to Brahms' Fourth

Seems we like the same beer as well as tonearm :^)
One of my favs. Another one, also from Eastern Canada. (Down East as we call it here) Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale.
Although some Sleeman Original Draught has been going down really really well ...... with this hot, very humid summer.

Moosehead beer had a godmother as a founder...

from the website

Meet our founding mother
Back in 1865, Susannah Oland sailed from England to Nova Scotia with her family and, lucky for us, with her recipe for a rather delicious brown October ale. Cheers to that.

here is an ET2 Ebay ad that came into my mail.
It is being sold by a seller for

"Parts, Repair, Restoration"

These ads can be a lot of fun and even like finding a diamond in the rough kind of thing sometimes; especially when the seller is not an audiophile and is not aware of what he is selling.

You can learn much about the ET2 tonearm from these parts ads. And lets face it.... there is no successful user/owner of this arm that does not learn how it actually works. Anyone disagree ? If you are a plug and play, dealer "set me up please" kind of turntable guy. Look for another tonearm.

Much about this tonearm can be learned from these types of ads because one is usually looking at valuable parts and not the whole thing as a package.
All parts outside of the actual manifold/spindle/VTA ARC block are interchangeable.

From Bruce' website.
"ARC block - This part is only sold and installed if the manifold housing is returned to the factory. Each arc block was individually machined during original assembly and there are no set tolerance parts available. Cost to replace the arc block - $300.00"

here is the pricing for reference of parts for those interested.

Parts Pricing

So the parts hanging off either spindle end, as well as the base plate, levers, handles cueing parts, could be bought as "outside" parts if still in good condition.
Determining the VTA block's condition when buying used, was discussed in detail on this thread. Remember the Brothel Post ?
Anyone interested in this should contact the seller to verify condition of the Rack's teeth.

This particular AD does say the base plate has been damaged by a previous owner who did not know how to set it up properly. Also those dreaded banned Lead weights seem to be missing from this package.

Happy Hunting

Interesting “facts discussion” about linear vs. radial tonearms, most have probably read it:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1266367593&openfrom&1&4&&st100
Sadly mostly boring (ie. repeated, but skewed arguments)… but some interesting points. A main point is the quotation of a High Performance Audio Review test in the 80's measuring much higher actual sideforces and deflection of the cantilever on a SAEC radial tonearm vs. an air bearing arm.
The reaction of the (radial) “experts”: Hilarious, ridiculous! The facts don't follow their invented orthodox belief, so the facts must be wrong! The reaction of other more pragmatic non scientifical audiophiles: This is only one situation, we must collect other… (measurements).
Experimental science means, one well set up experiment with a non expected measured outcome can expose any pre-existing contrary hypothesis as wrong. In this case the “excessive side-forces”. But what am I as a humble pragmatic thinker compared to the pope(s)?
Over most of the thread the effect of mass and bearing friction on a cantilever are confounded, and bearing stick vs. bearing friction isn't even mentioned. Neither are there attempts to define the magnitude of differences of (horizontal) friction of radial vs. air bearing arms. I think/suspect that even with the “lever advantage” the best radial arm may just quite cope with an air bearing. Horizontally that is. The rest is wrong thinking about the optimal horizontal mass aka. the desired horizontal resonance frequency – for best bass reproduction with lowest phase shift. The dynamic side forces on a cantilever are simply a result of friction (mostly non existant in an air bearing) and mass. Ie. they correlate with the horizontal resonance frequency – and are taking part in a compromise, where the sonic optimum lays much lower than audiophile orthodoxy.