Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners



Where are you? What mods have you done ?

I have been using these ET2's for over 9 years now.
I am still figuring them out and learning from them. They can be modified in so many ways. Bruce Thigpen laid down the GENIUS behind this tonearm over 20 years ago. Some of you have owned them for over 20 years !

Tell us your secrets.

New owners – what questions do you have ?

We may even be able to coax Bruce to post here. :^)

There are so many modifications that can be done.

Dressing of the wire with this arm is critical to get optimum sonics along with proper counterweight setup.

Let me start it off.

Please tell us what you have found to be the best wire for the ET-2 tonearm ? One that is pliable/doesn’t crink or curl. Whats the best way of dressing it so it doesn’t impact the arm. Through the spindle - Over the manifold - Below manifold ? What have you come up with ?
ct0517

Well... this stuff ist still interesting:
2374 answers... but -
after 48 sides & 2374 answers there are probably not too many new questions to be asked.
Or do you have a question?

any body understand using a bleed valve to keep the pressure regulator steady?

apb3rd formally apbiii

For the record I am resurrecting a TNT / ET 2.0 high pressure setup after a 5 yr delay after a move.

I read your post on resurrecting your TNT. (And about your most interesting motor control approach too!)
I use such a valve, but it needs an "overhead" of pressure you don’t have with 2.7 psi. I used to "stack" two original Takatuki pumps, this is possible because their housing is airtight. Means hot glueing a short piece of silicone tube onto the input of the second pump. (Connecting the other end to the output of the first pump)
With two pumps you get about 0.4 Bar which is good enough in the sense of achieving quite an improvement over your present pressure.
There are two diameters of the high pressure manifold, one for the original bearing tube diameter, one for the considerable thicker bearing tube which is the modification to the ET 2.5.
Depending on your cartridge, the ET 2.5 may a bit on the heavy side (there are posts on the experiences with both).
I think the Genesis 1000 is among the MCs with a softer suspension. So staying with the original diameter - but changing to the high pressure bearing would be optimal, because:
The high pressure version is manufactured to an - even! - closer tolerance and therefore bleeds off less air. (We talk about +/- 5um...  and less for the high pressure manifold !).
So the high pressure manifold improves sound by itself and also increases the pressure you get with an existing pump. I think Bruce used to optimize the air film thickness for certain pressures for his high pressure manifolds.

I am will be using the Jung pump so I don't have a problem with having enough pressure.  I'm currently existing with the original Wissa.  Before my move I ran it off a shop compressor at about 17psi.  It was about 100' away so I did not use a surge tank.  For this setup I will build one.

As I understand, there were three spindles available, the original low pressure, a high pressure small tube and the large tube.  I have  the small high pressure version.

I have a Control Air, more or less, low pressure series 700 regulator which I will use with a Control Air miniature 800 series that has a flow rate of 5 scfm which is much more than we need but much less than your typical regulator.  This should give me a little better regulation.  I think the proper place for the bleed valve is downstream of the regulator.  I may try another one between the regulators but that is probably overkill.

One side of the stand for the vta adjustment is striped and I may upgrade to the aluminum one if it is still available.  It still works but I can only approach  level from one direction.

If I recall correctly the compliance of the alpha is 15x10-6 so that puts slightly  the transition from low to medium compliance so the al tube should match pretty well. 

In the not two far distant future  I plan to add a 2nd 16# lead/acrylic/cork platter to the TNT which will require raising the ET 2 1.5 inches.  That will involve adding a longer base screw.

I will also probably splurge and get the Sota Eclipse package.