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Typical upgrade path from VPI?

I've had my Scoutmaster w/Sig arm for a couple months. It came with a Shelter 501 MkII cartridge setup by Elusive Disc. I've since had it re-setup and between that and break in, it improved.

I've recently added a 3g headshell weight (as per suggestions). Unfortunately, my main complaint still lingers: lack of midbass. I can switch to a CD (Benchmark DAC among others) and midbass seems fine, but absent on the TT. I get LOW bass (if there's low bass on the recording, I hear it as if I have a subwoofer), but mid-upper bass is weak.

It could be the Shelter, I realize this. I am willing to try another cartridge, and in searching threads on this, I read a lot of comments suggesting that the JMW tonearm (even sig version) is only so good (i.e. don't buy an expensive cartridge).

If one wants to bring things to the next level, are there compatible tone-arms? I also read complaints about the pivot tech of VPI, which suggests another TT may be something to consider.

So I'm curious as to what other brands of TT I should consider.

My system:
Rhea Signature phono
ARC Ref 3 preamp
Theta Citadel 1.5 amps
Speakers are still being auditioned (Dynaudio, Rockport in the running).

Thanks
madfloyd

Showing 1 response by violin

violin
120 posts
 
Madfloyd, I think that you just nailed the problem with you latest responce. If your speakers are overloading the room in the deep bass, then I bet that your are getting a bunch of mid bass suck outs due to various node multibles. These suck outs can be 15-25db deep and are caused by the dimensions of the room and its effect on the nodes.
I can speak from experience because I have sub woofers and had room node peaks at 80,160 cycles and a 18db suck out at 40hz.I installed 8 basstraps in my room and that not only brought the suck out up,but brought the peaks down.
You say that your room is soundproofed, but that is a lot different than treated acousticaly. I would bet that a whole lot of bass traps like the panels from RealTraps would cure 95% of your problem. Without an acousticaly treated room it is useless to audition any other speakers in that room.IMO if the Ariel 9s are loading up the room, the ones that you are considering would be worse.Not only that, without a treated room you cannot know what any component of your system is capable of.
I would suggest that you either borrow a Real Time Analyzer, or find someone that has one and will help you with it, and take a sound profile of your room and I think that you will be surprised at what you see.
Like others have said on this thread, I have a VPI Scout and I get all of the low and mid bass that I need now, but not before I treated the room.
Good Luck
Carter
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