Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Frogman You know I have always been a dog kind of guy.... .

But this Bengal kitty stole my heart.

Alas, finding Dutch Amperex Bugle Boy tubes on the carpet floor in the main room was a warning sign.

My turntable is on a low table, beside the wall, the bottom covered so one can not see under. Who wants to look at sand. A reminder of what is coming.

There I was listening, and a took a glance over at that marvel of engineering 4 feet away - only to see a tail wagging behind the spinning record. Like a conductor with his wand? This one Bengal colored.

Heart stopped, I pulled two muscles jumping up from the recliner.

I bent over to look under the table and repeated over and over - "here kitty, kitty. come here my good little kitty kitty"

The TT thread is easily replaced. But that cantilever and exposed naked tonearm wiring?

Now when she visits the door stays closed. But not sure what to do about the exposed electrostats in the adjacent room ? That room is open.

Great story, Chris. I too am a dog person and Artie my beagle is thankfully very well trained and knows that he is not allowed in my studio. Years ago when my dear wife and I were “getting serious” we found ourselves in an untenable situation. Her Siamese and my Chihuahua simply could not, or would not, get along. Whenever they were together the fur literally flew.

Around this time most of my lps were in storage waiting for my personal life to settle down and I was keeping only my most cherished four hundred or so lps with me at my temporary digs. When my future wife and I decided to move in together, I brought those lp treasures to our new place and I put them in a row on the floor temporarily while we settled in and they waited for their vacationing two thousand or so familiy members to rejoin them. The fur continued to fly. I also noticed that Max, now sharing living space with his arch nemesis the Siamese, grew increasingly hyper; if it’s possible for a Chihuahua to be even more hyper. I came home one night that my wife was away on business to find that Max had chewed, in perfect sequence, ALL the spines of my lp jackets as if to say: Get that fu@&ing cat out of here!!!  Luckily, no damage to the vinyl.  Yes, my favorite lps’ jackets all have chewed bottom corners. I wanted to kill the little bastard.

Not entirely clear how the ensuing negotiations were resolved, but the Siamese ended up in Cleveland, Ohio with sister-in-law. I’m sure I paid dearly for that one...I suspect I still am ☺️

Frogman - There is no way that I could deal with a 100% Mexican Chihuahua. let me explain before people get their shorts in a knot.

As it is "Lucky" , named as such by my daughter and her BF, rescued him; So he is 50% Chihuahua and 50% Jack Russell. This means 50% of the time he is in a Chihuahua barking fit, and the other 50% of the time he is on the other side of the couch staring at me, probably thinking God only knows what thoughts. He is probably thinking why doesn’t this guy give me more treats for being his RCA Victor dog front man. 8^0

Lucky, of course can be found on the first picture of my Audiogon Virtual System. Ok maybe I will give him more treats for pulling that RCA Victor dog duty.

Audiophiles can shoot me if they like, but I find it vastly more interesting looking at pictures of dog and cats, et al ...... in the audio room setting then the gear itself. So boring. Especially Digital Gear. But then I am a career IT guy. My laptop is stuck to my sleeve.

A couple owners have reached out to me privately on proper torquing of the VTA block.  So I thought it would be good to rehash the procedure here now. See the picture 35 on my virtual system for reference. 
   
lt is done with the VTA block - NOT - mounted. Hold in your hand and use the feeler gauge.

The Gap value is arbitrary based on personal preference. Ensure you do not over torque.

Bruce' instructions follow

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Chris,

    My first rule would be to use the short end of the Allen wrench as the lever for torquing any screws on the ET-2. The short lever arm will limit the applied torque.
    For the two bearing blocks that mesh the pinion to the rack in the arc block we first adjust the blocks so that they are parallel to the manifold housing with a .060 -.090 gap between the bearing block and the back adjacent surfaces on the manifold housing.
    The friction between the manifold housing and the arc block define the feel of the VTA mechanism lever action. We want this to offer some resistance, but not too much when a VTA adjustment is attempted. Turn the 4/40 x 3/4 bearing block screws so that some friction is encountered when adjusting VTA but not so much that the VTA mechanism locks up. We would not attempt this adjustment with the tonearm installed on a turntable.
   
  The main failures we see with the arc blocks are:
  1.The threaded insert on back surface of the arc block is cracked due to over torquing of 8-32 stainless steel button head post mounting screw.
  2.The bearing blocks on either side of the arc block which support the pinion gear are over torqued which crushes the pinion into the rack and binds the mechanism, if a VTA change is attempted with over torqued bearing blocks the pinion turns and the rack does not move, stripping the teeth on the rack.

  I hope the above helps

    - brucet