Stand for VPI Scout


I am going to buy a VPI Scout and would like people's advice on stands. When auditioning it they had it on what looked like marble. Heavy and flat... sounds good. What do you think?
128x128toddwj

Showing 1 response by red2

I have a Well Tempered Labs table and have it sitting on 60 lbs of mass on tiptoes. The first 30 lbs is a chunk of dense engineered stone (Absolute Black granite would be even better) and then a 30 lb chunck of 3" thick hard rock maple cutting board on top of it. The turntable sits atop it all.

I noticed a very large improvement in soundstaging and bass. Versus just granite itself, or the table by itself, the maple really adds warmth. I also tried Audiopoint, by Star Sound, tiptoes under the table: The sound became very, very clean, and neutral, but sterile and bland sounding in my system.

My system and tastes needs some warmth and emotion. IF you are running tube amp or preamp, you may get different results. I run passive pre and SS amp. I do run tube phono stage, with Amperex tubes. I may try Mullards soon. I want my music to sound like a live show in a nightclub. I crave "presence". I have tried many cartridges on this turntable, and the Denon 103R is the best by a long shot. It is "alive" and dynamic. I would like to ultimately try a Shelter, but that is a chunk more dough.

For darn sure make certain that you have azimuth set properly on your tonearm and vta! Once I learned how to get azimuth set correctly with a meter, and then kept making tiny adjustments to vta, I now can get the SPOT where the cartridge simply rides perfectly in the groove. Words can not describe the difference it makes in the sound and presentation. My turntable slays my $1400 vacumn tube CD player, and it ain't no slouch. I have emotion is spades.

I can only speak of what I have read, but some say the basic VPI Scout has some potential speed stability issues? The 300 RPM motor upgrade is suppose to solve this. Good question to ask before buying used or new.

Good Luck,

R.