Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Hi Brad - you need to be very careful working with and around the machined plug on a stock ET2 tonearm. 

You would be like we are fond of saying here....... "Poking at the Sleeping Bear" 

Thanks for that information.
This arm is pretty new to me and in stock form far superior to anything that I've owned before. I'm trying to decide if or what I might to do to improve it's performance. 
I did email Bruce about converting it to a high pressure manifold, that might be a possibility. Cost is a concern, so is not having a table for an extend time.
-Brad  

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Brad,
in hindsight and fwiw. Consider this.

My first ET2 years ago was a stock one. Over time, once I had it working well, I finally opened up the "Book Of Bruce" ...BOB ....and read it through... instead of giving it a cursory look over in sections, the first few times. I then refined my setup again.

That stock ET2 outperformed..... Trumped .......
Dynavector, FR64s, VPI 12 and Micro Seiki tonearms that I had.
That’s in stock mode.

So my advice based on my experiences, is to have patience with what you have and build experience with it. Now definitely get a couple Long I Beams from Bruce (Single and Double Springs). The Long I Beam is inexpensive in terms of cost, but huge in terms of performance; and is how it was meant to be, if not for business constraints .... those dreaded dustcovers.

Then .....if one is still in Audiophile mode after this, consider the options which include.

Direct Shot wiring - very easy setup on an ET2. Just bypass existing wiring.

The Aluminum mounting base

Aluminum Gooseneck (Joint).

Carbon Fiber Armtube. works with MM and MC carts.

Magnesium (Mag) armtube. Lower compliance MC carts.

High Pressure Manifold.

Conversion to 2.5 (if Bruce still does this - not sure)
You didn’t say if yours was a 2.0 or 2.5. If you use mostly MC carts, the 2.5 is preferred, larger spindle is lower in resonance to deal better with MC carts as discussed here. If you use MM carts I would stick with the 2.0.

My 2 cents

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So when is Spring coming guys ? I heard the Yankees and Mets baseball games were snowed out this week ?

Hello all.  Long quiet spell.  We must all be busy with spring.  Except, of course, Chris who I assume is still snowed in.   I picked up my refurbished Garrard 301 yesterday and set it up with the Lyra Delos.  You can see before and after pictures on my virtual system. Not only is the 301 a work of art, I've never heard a Lyra sound this smooth.  Gone is the brightness for which many have criticized Lyras.  Nice smooth presentation with gobs of liquidity.  
I must give a shout out to Greg Metz at STS Turntables.  He did an amazing job with the refurb on this table. 
 

Congrats!  It looks fantastic.  I look forward to your impressions of its sonics compared to the VPI/ET2 setup.

@frogman  Interesting.   My Lyra Delos sounds significantly better in almost every patamater on the Garrard/Ortofon than it did on the VPI/ET II.  On the Garrard the Delos is much richer and the high end is much tamer without being at all rolled off.  I've owned two Lyras, the Delos and a Clavis.  I've never heard a Lyra sound as good.

That said, I don't think it is an improvement over my VDH Black Beauty on the VPI/ET.   Different, which one would expect with different tables, arms and cartridges, but I'd be hard pressed to say one was "better" than the other.  Then I suppose that alone is a compliment to the Garrard/Ortofon/Delos rig since the VDH costs more than twice the Delos.  I've ordered a second headshell for the Ortofon to see how the VDH sounds on the new rig.