Upgrading ET-2 tonearm to something better

Clearaudio have three tangential arms.  I have not seen them.  Another approach is put a DS Audio (optical transducer) in your arm, as I have done with my ET-2.  Tangential is good for optical transducers because the skating can be well controlled.

There have been updates (available at ET) these last several years that offer improvements if you're in interested in going to another level of performance with your current arm.

I’ve heard the Kuzma 4Point11, SME V & Graham for many years with a variety of cartridges - friends still have them. I’ve had the ET2 for 30 years, along with a few other arms Naim Aro, Dynavector, FR64S.

None of these will "eat the ET2". You are more likely to go backwards.

Give the ET2 a birthday and send it back to Eminent Technology for a full service.

You can get it upgraded to ET2.5 but that will require revisiting air pump requirements.

In terms of soundstage transparency, tracking distortion, and coherency no pivoted arm can match it.

I am..sort of…with @dover on this…at this level, we are trading nits, definitely not LUNCH….i have a Triplaner but could be just as happy w ET2.x…. i agree, get it overhauled, upgrade pump, hush box, etc…

Enjoy the music

Jim

Fermi has stated: ''If I was smarter I could remember more of those

particles''. It is not possible to remember all improvements made

to ET-2 despite the fact that this thread was second after MM thread. 

@dcaudio , If you have the room the Schroder LT is the one to go for. Your table will have to be able to take a 12" arm. If not the Kuzma 4 point 9, the Schroder CB or the Tri Planar will be fine. 

Thank you.  Good responses.  I believe ET-2 is a very good arm and your comments confirm.  Also DS Audio 003 is an amazing cartridge.

Thank you for your support!

As Dover points out, it is more than just very good. Properly set up, it will be hard to beat…at any price. You may find this thread of interest; just about everything related to it has been covered:

Nonsense, the ET of any vintage is a terrible arm for a number of reasons. My suggestion is sell it and forget it. You will not be sorry. 

Well, THAT was an intelligent and useful comment! Curious, have you ever used a properly set up ET2?  Please enlighten me further.

I'll never part with my ET 2.5.  I've thought about it many times.  I've also have owned a Graham 2.5, SME V (while I had the ET 2.5).  The ET is still here, and own a VPI JMW-12 on a second table.  Good arm, but no ET 2.5

Wow. I loved my time w/et2. I sold it as package deal in the 90s. I just stopped doing analog during my child raising years. I would have zero issues returning to one given the years of killer sound it gave me. Some people's narrow definition of what works for everyone says more about them than the equipment being discussed. I trust my ears more than anyone's opinions or religion.