Typical upgrade path from VPI?

I'm not giving up on the VPI that quickly. It has truly opened my eyes to the amount of detail you can get with LPs. I'm still enjoying it, and I do love the fact that it can be upgraded, tweaked, etc.

Up until recently, I didn't have the confidence to consider changing the cartridge myself and my dealer talked me out of doing that in the short term (I'm auditioning speakers and the advice was to wait until that was sorted). However, when Harry from VPI mentioned that I really needed the 3g weight with my cartridge, it seemed like the right thing to do, although it necessitated re-setting up the TT. A good thing probably as it got me to take the do-it-myself plunge.

I now would like to try a different cartridge. I am still confused as to which one to get. In one of the other threads I asked but didn't get a response. I don't understand the dif between H and L or M models and there seemed to be some confusion over whether you can get the VPI-specific Dynavector separately (my dealer says it needs to come pre-installed on a tonearm).

So when searching today for cartridge suggestions I accidently dug up a few threads on how the VPI may not be right for classic rock, or anything less than perfect recordings, etc etc and it got me wondering what another TT choice would be - IF I decided to give up on the VPI. Again, I'm not there yet - I would be crazy to do so without swapping cartridges (in the very least).

Sorry if I'm frustrating anyone. The more I learn the more I realize how much there IS to learn about analog - and how little I know.

Just to answer a few questions:

- I'm not auditioning speakers with the TT, I'm using various sources (CDs etc)

- I'm currently using a Tube Box SE II while my Rhea is being repaired. My dealer adjusted the load settings.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll look into sourcing a cheap cartridge; that's a good idea.

Hi Redtop.

I don't use a sub. My room is soundproofed and retains bass energy. My current speakers are Aerial Model 9s - a bad match as these are bass heavy speakers that overload the room. So when playing any other source besides my turntable, I get way too much bass (working on that problem - auditioning other speakers etc). So I know that problem is isolated to the TT somehow (I've swapped amps, preamp etc).

I'll have my Rhea back tomorrow as well as a new cartridge to try out. I've pretty convinced that it's not the actual turntable, but the cartridge. We'll soon see.

Thanks.

Thanks for the response, Carter.

I did purchase quite a few RealTraps (too much actually, have to sell a bunch). I have only 4 of them in place - they turned out to be too cumbersome - my room looked like a junkyard with more of them. They didn't solve the problem (helped somewhat though).

I have tried other speakers in the room without the same issues. I have a pair of Genesis 6.1s in another system that I tried - worked great. My old speakers (which I still have) are Von Schweikert and I've always thought that they had pretty flat bass response and they work in the room (I don't like their lack of high freq detail though). Also have auditioned Rockport Miras which didn't overload the room either.

I too have a spike around 80hz. I'm auditioning Dynaudio C2s over the next couple days (receive them tomorrow). My guess is that they will be a tad anemic in the midbass, but I do like the detail so I'm going to try them anyway.

All this to say that you are right about soundproofing not being sound treatment, but while my room is not perfect, it's not that bad either - the Aerials have 4 bass drivers per speaker - simply a crazy amount of bass for my situation.

Umm, that just went over my head. What's a NAB test disc, and how do you measure output voltage from a preamp?