New VPI purchase

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.