vpi scout

Right, get those JBLs out Mike, I can make it

 

Static display only I'm afraid Dev - it would take hours to get the bloody things integrated with my room's bass issues and no EQ. Glad to see you can make it though.

 

Thanks Mike, for a great afternoon. Some of the music played was "interesting" but on the whole I enjoyed it. Nice little system you have there. Oh, and the JBL? what can I say.

 

dev, you are a gentleman! thanks for the lift and the wonderful snacks!
and thanks merlin for the highly enjoyable afternoon! i will let you know asap!
nice to meet you ian and good to see you again neil.

 

merlin, what was the vinyl website that you showed me? thanks!

 

Get that second JBL back

Thanks for the hospitality, and many thanks to Dev for the lift back, and Mrs Dev for the excellent food ;-)

-- Ian

 

Thanks to all for making the trip out, an enjoyable day. The vinyl site was simply audio

Dev, you are welcome anytime sir, just let me know you are coming round before lunchtime so that I don't waste my time eating.

All in all some good music, particularly enjoyed the two covers of Stairway To Heaven ;-)

Ian, you are a bass head just like the rest of us - be honest here!

Forgot to mention you should have stuck around. We had Indian drummers and Blondes in Saris on the village green all evening!

 

Quick question for Merlin:
Have you any experience unsing multiple arm wands with the VPI arm, and if so how easy/difficult is it to swap arm wands?

 

Hi Joel,

no I have not tried it, although the actual swap would be easy. The only issues I can imagine would be VTA should the two cartridges be noticably different, and the fact that you need to use the lead out wires for bias adjustment and that would take a couple of minutes to get right.

Worst case scenario, I suspect it would take 2-3 minutes to be up and running. Of course with the JMW10.5 and 12.5 VTA is more easily adjustable and calibrated, so with those it would be even easier.

It was good to chat with Ian. Could well find myself in Tokyo for a weekend soon!

 

Hi Merlin,
Cool, thanks for that. I don't know if the VPI arm can be mounted on the NAS' spare "pod", but I'll look into it. The Moerch, it turns out, is less flexible in this area than it first appears.
Let me know if you do come over, we'll arrange a few things. I suspect you'd quite like Tokyo.

 

Joel, the Hadcock 242 does exactly what you're after, you can either exchange the whole headshell, or the arm wand, just a couple of turns on an allen key required. Nice arm too.

-- Ian

 

GUTTED!

 

Ian,
Any thoughts on the, ah, long-term reliability of this arm

 

I think I was just unlucky, general opinion seems favourable, and it's been in production for about a million years.

-- Ian

 

ian, which were the phono stages you recommended?

 

A Graham Slee would be a good start, he has an MM stage which would work with that high output Dynavector. He also sells a matching MC stepup for low-output MC carts, so you have a nice easy upgrade path if you decide to go for a low-output cart in the future.

-- Ian

 

thanks ian, i don't really know enough about phono stages... i couldn't tell from the graham slee website if the gram 2 had enough gain for the dynavector? probably doesn't help that i can't remember what the sensitivity is on my pre...

cartridge output amp/preamp line input*
2mV 240mV or lower
3mV 360mV or lower
4mV 480mV or lower
5mV 600mV or lower
6mV 720mV or lower
7mV 840mV or lower
8mV 960mV or lower

i think the dynavector is supposed to be 2.8mV, so i'm guessing this looks ok?

 

and also the loading??? i know even less about this!

 

Blake I have the Era Gold V and I believe they are all similar with regard to loading gain etc, I use a shure m/m at 3mv the loading in the slee products is 47kohm anyless and you need the elevator xp at £550, A frined brought over his west phonstage (he uses a Klyde IIRC) and on my TT with my cart we couldn't tell any real difference, which surprised me given the whests rave reviews, obviously it might be different when compared to era gold/elevator vs whest with a low output m/c as ian says the elevator offers a superb upgrade path, to the slee range.

 

Any decent MM phono stage will do, 2.8mV is a healthy output. I wouldn't worry too much about fiddling with the loading until/unless you get into something more esoteric and low-output, most phono stages offer sensible defaults for MM and high-output MC which will work just fine. Other options, depending on budget, can be had from Rega (£220-ish new), EAR (switchable MM/MC 834P tubed stage, about £350-£400 secondhand), Trichord Dino (switchable MM/MC, very flexible with loading options), Loricraft, etc etc. But the Slee seems to get very favourable feedback from everyone, and is a sensible price.

-- Ian