VPI Single Motor Flywheel / SDS / Aries 3

Stan, thanks so much for your response. So this is 72 for 33 rpm speed? That would seem to make sense as I would guess at 72 this is where I would have to be to get accurate speed for 33 rpm.

Any more info I can gleem from you would be great. Your sure know your VPI stuff!

Stan here are my settings with the original Aries 3 motor using center weight and peripheral ring: 33RPM - 60 Hz, 45 RPM- 81 Hz.

I'll try the flywheel with strobe disc more tonight and see what I get. If you had to set it at 72 Hz to get 33 RPM with flywheel and center weight and peripheral ring, it would make sense from what I'm seeing.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The Flywheel seems a little more finicky than the simple 300 rpm motor, but I'm still at work at it. One thing interesting is it does seem like it takes the flywheel a good 5 minutes or so to get to a stable speed. If I work on adjustments on speed using the strobe disc immediately, I wind up chasing my own tail! After five minutes, its seems like it has reached a stable speed and I can start adjusting.

I ordered some VPI magic lube for the bearing of the platter and flywheel and applied them last night. It seems to make the flywheel run smoother and quieter, but i have seen no real improvement in stability of speed or being able to lower the Hz on the SDS back to where the single 300 rpm motor was set.

I did get a response from Mike at VPI and he suggested the Magic lube and he is also sending me an HRX pulley. My flywheel has the dual sized pulley for playing 33 and 45 rpm without the SDS. He said since I had an SDS, the HRX pulley should be much more stable and I may be able to use only one belt from the flywheel motor pulley to the flywheel.

The saga continues....

By the way, anyone replaced the black plastic/delrin motor pulley on a 300 rom motor or single motor flywheel before? How do you do it? It hasn't arrived from VPI yet, but I'm just trying to be prepared. Thanks....

Guys, mine does the same thing: 84v to start and then quickly to 72v in 33 rpm and up to 115v to start and down to 102v in 45 rpm. I think this is normal activity and its the way the SDS 'kick starts' the spinning to get things moving then back to the optimal operating voltage once spinning start equilibrating.

Repeating a quick question: has anyone out there replaced or changed out the black delrin motor pulley on a VPI 300 rpm motor or single motor flywheel? Just wondering how you do it. Thanks.

Joe, I agree about the SDS. My Single Motor Flywheel was sent with a different pulley (I think made for people without SDS).

Here is a pic of it and my current setup:

http://www.me.com/gallery/#100009

Mike from VPI sent me the HRX pulley that is shown in your pic from your previous post.

I wanting to replace it, but no instructions were sent on how to. Of course I could wait until Monday and shoot Mike another email, but I'm hoping someone out there has replaced a pulley on a VPI motor and can give me some advice.

Sorry, link doesn't work. Its the pulley that has two circumferences, with a little larger on bottom for 45 rpm play.

Here is a pic of my current set up with a link that works:

http://s854.photobucket.com/albums/ab101/philb7777/?action=view¤t=IMG_4509.jpg

Thanks for the info Tobes. It is a 2mm allen wrench. The screws have a green nylon tip. I replaced my dual sized pulley with the HRX one and it now works perfectly. My Hz required for 33 rpm is 60 with two belts and 45 rpm is 80.75 with two belts. I may experiment with one belt as Mike from VPI said it would be less noisy. That said, my speed is rock solid and dead on, and the music to my ears is back to the original sound of the regular 300 rpm motor, yet more air, more dynamics and slightly lower noise floor. Images are more rock solid. Subtle improvements over what was already fantastic, but you know us audiophiles, always looking for more....

Thanks a bunch for everyone's feedback, responses and help. This is a great community and I'm thankful for it.