Thanks everyone for your comments. When I clamp a record down to my Scout via the VPI clamp and rubber washer I feel focus is pretty good but it seems some of the dynamics are reduced in the process, and the sound seems smaller. I can see where you would say "dark and slow". I don't know if I'm reacting to the acrylic platter or if it's just "sum of the parts" of the TT. With all this said I still very much enjoy listening to this table.
A couple of tweaks that have definitely helped with the PRaT thing was to further isolate the motor on a 3/4" steel slab (6" x 6") and a maple shelf for the TT both sitting in a 4" thick sand box. Doing this completely isolates the motor from the TT, well except for the belt and the sand. That has also helped with darker backgrounds as well. The other tweak was to make a home made record mat using the stuff used for lining the drawers in tool boxes. The waffle textured looking stuff you can get at Lowe's in the tool department. I swear it looks just like the mat on some Well Tempered tables and that has made the biggest change yet. Much more energetic and more spacious sounding but at the same time ticks and pops are a little more pronounced but definitely worth the tradeoff. Despite the improvements beyond a stock Scout with these little tweaks I can't help but think I'm still only halfway at best to a Classic in terms of sound quality.
Islandmandan, I hadn't really considered changing either the cartridge or phono pre as I was thinking there was a pretty good synergy with the 20X and the P75 MK II in phono enhance mode. Definitely better than the standard MC setting, but worth considering. Thanks.
A couple of tweaks that have definitely helped with the PRaT thing was to further isolate the motor on a 3/4" steel slab (6" x 6") and a maple shelf for the TT both sitting in a 4" thick sand box. Doing this completely isolates the motor from the TT, well except for the belt and the sand. That has also helped with darker backgrounds as well. The other tweak was to make a home made record mat using the stuff used for lining the drawers in tool boxes. The waffle textured looking stuff you can get at Lowe's in the tool department. I swear it looks just like the mat on some Well Tempered tables and that has made the biggest change yet. Much more energetic and more spacious sounding but at the same time ticks and pops are a little more pronounced but definitely worth the tradeoff. Despite the improvements beyond a stock Scout with these little tweaks I can't help but think I'm still only halfway at best to a Classic in terms of sound quality.
Islandmandan, I hadn't really considered changing either the cartridge or phono pre as I was thinking there was a pretty good synergy with the 20X and the P75 MK II in phono enhance mode. Definitely better than the standard MC setting, but worth considering. Thanks.