Eminent ET-II, Owner'S Manual

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A damping track applied to a tonearm (straight line or pivoted), will reduce the measured
wow and flutter usually 10-30% and sometimes as much as 50%. ET-2 wow and flutter readings
with a typical cartridge and good turntable will usually measure (.02 to .04%) which is extremely
low for an LP system. With the damping track installed flutter readings with the ET drop still
lower and with one test record we measured readings as low as .007%.
Surface irregularities on the vinyl of the LP record are the primary cause of rumble or
random low frequency noise, which causes the tonearm/cartridge spring system to start
oscillating. This oscillation occurs continuously during playback. It is a primary cause of wow
and flutter and FM distortion in phono playback. Surface irregularities occur not as a part of the
record cutting process, but result from the molding process used in making the record.