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VPI Rim Drive vs. belt drive sound files

Greetings All,

About two weeks ago I installed the VPI Rim Drive on my HRX turntable. Having gone through the same frustration of getting the speed stable discussed in other threads, I ---> THINK <--- I finally have it fairly well tweaked. The difference in sound appears to be a much more focused sound stage at the expense (?) of a change in tonal balance. Specifically, the mid tomes of piano keys seems to be a bit more harsh and there appears to be a bit more extension in the very bottom octave.

As I use my turntable purely as a front end for archival capture and mastering, I have digital files of the same tracks, though the identical signal path with both the belt drive and the rim drive. If anyone has the patience to download these large AIFF format files, the link below will give you access to a few of them. I’d be very interested in getting feedback from all on both sonic differences between them as well as any suggestions to improve the Rim drive set up based on listening. If you’d like to check them out please go to:

http://clients.crossroadstelevision.com

user: dean
password: marvin
go into the “VPI RIM DRIVE TEST” folder

Cheers,
Dean
dean358

Showing 2 responses by ptmconsulting

ptmconsulting
1,000 posts
 
I hear people complaining that they are still trying to get speed stability with the VPI rim drive. Is there a similar issue with the teres solution?

Do these rim drives have stable pitch/speed, or do they still require and SDS or something similar to make sure they are speed stable?

Bob
ptmconsulting
1,000 posts
 
A couple of suggestions for those of you with belt drives but interested in getting more PRAT out of them.

If you look closely at the belt where it comes off the spindle before going back to the platter you will notice that it wobbles quite a bit. You can feel it easily with a finger lightly touching the belt. Try placing something heavy and smooth up against it to reduce this "rumble" and vibration. I bet you will hear a smoothing out and a more stable musical presentation.

Another suggestion is try using string instead of the rubber belt. You MUST have a speed controller to do this though because the width of the belt ve the width of the string will cause substantial speed differences in the platter. Use a string that does not stretch, like Rayon. This proved to be a substantial improvement over the VPI rubber belt, even with the stabilizing buffer on it.

I would love to see how much better the rim drive is over a string drive. I'm sure it would be a closer contest overall.

Happy New Year,
Bob
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