New VPI purchase

Your dealer should assist you with set up.  

@testpilot 

+1

Congratulations! I owned a VPI for a couple decades. It was my first audiophile table and absolutely blew away (an order of magnitude greater performance) everything I had owned before it although some or them had respected names with good reviews (Like AR and Rega)

Just take your time. They are relatively easy to set up. Great turntable! 

You will have terrific customer service (that you hopefully will never need).

There is a video for the standard VPI Prime that starts with unboxing the unit to the setup, cartridge mounting and their options on anti skate and how to apply. Video is about 6 minutes long and informational even if you know what you are doing and especially so if you do not. Good luck, go ahead and get your hands dirty.

If you have a Uni-pivot arm, and it's your first time hearing about and using one, you're in for a surprise.

I was under the impression that you can't adjust antiskating on a VPI arm. Have the changed?

Setup should be straight forward. 

Cartridge setup using the supplied jig won't  get the cart aligned for OCD types, but should will get you close enough to enjoy it. Anti skate topic is a no win, try it both ways to hear any difference.

Save yourself some frustration and get this. 

https://sound-smith.com/accessories/counter-intuitive-vpi-tone-arms

Look at Wally Tools

My advice is to first tell us, as someone else already asked, if you have the gimbaled or unipivot arm.  

Second, do not count on getting it set up without an experienced friend or hired gun. 

Third, if unipivot, forget about twisting the nutrik connector wire for anti-skate. It causes more problems than it solves. 

Last, don't overthink it. Get a Riverstone VTF gauge and get ovehang and VTF right and make sure your table is level. After that, setting VTA and AS and twist/alignment are all niceties that will improve sound but the myth that suddenly if you get seven parameters just right including loading the angels will descend from heaven and the musicians will be in the room with you is just that-myth. 

I've had the og Prime with the 2M Black for several years. You will love that table. Pay attention not to set the motor too far from the plinth.  This will strain the belt. Also if you hear clicking when the platter starts don't panic. Some talc on the belt can be useful but not entirely necessary. The VPI video is helpful. Next step is to invest in the outer ring. 

Happy listening.

@travisg Congrats on your new table. I loved (and still love) my VPI Classic 3 even though my primary rig now uses a Clearaudio Innovation Wood. +1 to gjohns and invest in the outer ring when ready. Also consider getting Isoacoustics Gaia II footers for the table and replace the stock feet. They gave me a worthy upgrade in imaging clarity. 

Also, your preferences may differ, but I found that the best mat is no mat. I loved playing records directly on the aluminum platter, especially coupled with the ring clamp. 

Enjoy!

Did you get the uni-pivot arm or the Gimbal. The Gimbal is much easer to setup or so I am told. I have owned VPI since the 90s you will love it. Don't be too quick to judge the sound that cartridge takes awhile to break in.

Have fun

I have an oldie but goody...a Superscoutmaster...that I upgraded with Classic platter, Rim Drive, new VPI 3D arm, 2nd pivot.....and so it goes.

I have an oldie but goody...a Superscoutmaster...that I upgraded with Classic platter, Rim Drive, new VPI 3D arm, 2nd pivot.....and so it goes.

Hello,

Great choices, Especially if it is the Fatboy and not the standard tonearm. Most important: be in a good state of mind and very comfortable. Leave the stylus guard on until you are ready to set the VTA/ VTF. I know if you balance the weight and take the stylus guard off the tonearm will go up. It’s better than crashing down and crushing the cantilever. Just leave on the stylus guard while making the wired connections to the cartridge. The great thing is that cart goes great with that table. Also, it has a replicant stylus so it is a little more forgiving and has a great detailed sound with a warm touch. 
If you have a ball bearing use it to level the table/ platter. It works way better than a level because the ball bearing rolls to the low side. 
these do have anti-skate. Most people don’t use it and give the tonearm cable a twist and call it a day. I am very picky when setting up tt. I use the Ortifon record to help nail down the anti-skate. 
To break in the cartridge let it rest on a record for two days straight. Then 10-20 hours of play and you are good to go. If you don’t have a way to keep people and pets from touching the turntable while the stylus is sitting on the record for two days then just play some records. This break-in methods is from Ortofon not me. I did just do this with my ne cart and it worked very well. 
last but not least: NO LIQUIDS ON THE STYLUS AND NO GEL OR GOO PADS. 

Sorry for yelling but that is a $3k cart. If you use those and something happens to the cart Ortofon will know. Very carfully dry brush with the included brush BACK TO FRONT. If you don’t feel comfortable then don’t touch it. When you do clean the stylus Mack sure the tonearm is not locked down. I know this sounds counter intuitive. If you lock down the tonearm you are more likely to crush or put to much weight on the cantilever. 
You will be fine with the tools provided by VPI with that stylus. I have saw the owner Matt setup the Fatboy in 5 minutes at AXPONA. When you get better tools and more comfortable you can get super picky. 
Please take your time. It’s well wort it in the end. 
I hope this helps. 
 

Great tt !!! The only thing I would change is weird tonarm wiring with that strange not necessary connector. I really don’t understand why to have extra barrier on signal path in form of that connector !?

@ghdprentice     You suggest your change of TT produced better sound by 'an order of magnitude'.   That is 10x better sound.  Accepting each of us has different measurement scales I still find it difficult to align with that.

Perhaps it would be interesting to discuss the philosophy of according performance evaluation figures to what we hear.  This has been vogue in the wine business for many years now but so far as I know has not been widely used by hi-fi critics,

On wine, Robert Parker who started it, has made a great deal of money and set himself up as the unchallengable authority.  Many other wine critics have followed him. Most mark out of 20, but for some reason not using 0 to 10 (?not to be insulting)..  10 is massively faulty, undrinkable -  I suppose think pocket sized transistor radios from the 60s.  20 is perfect.  We are not told if the scale is linear or to some extent geometric.  As a wine lover of many years standing who has consumed a few bottles rated 20 by some, my impression is that the scale might be linear or perhaps mildly negatively geometric, i.e the jump from 15 to 16 is greater than that from 18 to 19.

If there is to be a single marking system for the whole market, of course hi-fi is like wine in that there are many styles that must be accommodated by the critic and as far as possible treated even-handedly - super difficult in hi-fi.

Like evaluating hi-fi, wine tasting is overwhelmingly subjective and my take is to be sceptical about the usefulness of allocating marks to subjectively perceived quality levels.

Now don't get me onto cars.  Jeremy Clarkson rates them out of 5, but uses half points at 3 and 4.   I'm not sure I recall many 5s, although there have been a few 1s.

The setup video is on New Record Day (Ron?). It is very helpful.

Do an A/B comparison with and without the record clamp to see which sounds better.  I found that the clamp, while quieter, reduced the "jump factor".

I owned two VPI's over a span of six years. I disagree that the periphery ring, which I have, makes a positive difference unless the record is warped near the edge. 

I do agree the VPI feet are trash. They look fancy. I have posted about this here before. 

You still have a very fine table, particularly with the gimbaled Fatboy. Good job!

Someone above said the replicant stylus is a "little more forgiving". I humbly disagree. It is very difficult to set up a replicant for optimum playback. But as I said above, the heavens will not part when it is optimum vs. slightly off. But getting azimuth and VTA/SRA are important with the replicant stylus. 

Forgive me for having some time on my hands but I looked at your past threads trying to figure out your system. Based on your prior questions I gather you are both very intelligent and on something of a modest budget. Again, good for you for picking out a great deck. I believe in source first, not loudspeakers first when it comes to budget. I said it above and I will say it again-you really ought to find an experienced set-up person to optimize your settings at some point (not necessary immediately!). 

Just get VTF right, leveling correct, and alignment halfway close and you will be fine for now. Most VTF gauges are off. Getting correct VTF is critical. The Riverstone gauge is not that expensive and is very accurate. 

FWIW (no financial connection), my recco to see what your table and cartridge can really do is to strongly consider Brian Walsh of ttsetup.com. 

I know @fsonicsmith stated that the twist in the wire is no good. But I have found that if you use the Soundsmith method of checking anti-skate, that a little twist does the trick. The stylus will slightly pause at the lead out groove, then slowly drift towards the spindle. At least that's my experience with it.

I know @fsonicsmith stated that the twist in the wire is no good. But I have found that if you use the Soundsmith method of checking anti-skate, that a little twist does the trick. The stylus will slightly pause at the lead out groove, then slowly drift towards the spindle. At least that's my experience with it.

On a gimbaled arm I have no problem with it. With a unipivot, twisting the lemo wire tends to cause the tonearm and head shell to cant to one side, usually the outboard side up IIRC. A counterintuitive is meant to offer fine and repeatable adjustment of VTF and azimuth in an otherwise "clean slate" scenario, not to offset the cant caused by twisting the lemo wire, at least afaik. I would never deny a thing that Peter Lederman recommends. There is no denying that HW and MW don't accept AS as an important design parameter. 

Speaking of Peter Lederman and his knowledge (and sorry for thread drift) but why does a guy who can build a strain gauge cartridge not design a phono stage meant to tackle the state of the art? He is clearly capable. Instead he offers fairly entry-level phono stages that are incidentally all business to the point of being butt-ugly. Double-bagger ugly. 

@boxcarman,

When not using the clamp, do you also go without the rubber washer?  My Scout 2 does sound livelier without the clamp.

I bought one of the last VPI HW-40's earlier this year and what a difference it made. I use the Ortofon Cadenza Black. VPI did the initial setup and I just tweaked it after I placed the table where it was going. I use a Stillpoints weight. I have not used the supplied ring and probable will not. FWIW

@emarcano   I have a first run Scout and it did not come with a rubber washer.  So no.  I did replace the platter matt with a cork matt.

Though I have only owned the Scout in the past, I still regret ever selling it. For its price, the performance was wonderful. The fact that you have a much upgraded model and tonearm, makes me think how wonderful it all must be.

I remember the twist in the tonearm cable to be the recommended response to skating, but would have liked to see something a bit more definitive, especially when using a uni-pivot tonearm.