What's the limit for cart upgrade/VPI Scout?

This topic has been discussed (in general) many times. As a rule, the optimal upgrade order for a vinyl playback chain is: table and phono stage first, tonearm second, cartridge a more distant third. Doing things in this order will typically give you the most bang for your buck.

You'd certainly hear an improvement (or at least a difference!) if you mounted a Titan i or other megabuck cartridge on your Scout, but you wouldn't hear all it's capable of. This probably wouldn't be the most productive use of your audio budget.

The Scout benefits mightily from improvements that address motor noise and speed stability issues. Don't take my word for it, ask Harry Weisfeld. It's why VPI offers significant upgrades for these areas. (SAMA, outboard controllers, etc.) The sonic benefits of these and similar devices is agreed on by every user who's tried them.

In short, I'd put my money toward a better performing table and a more resolving tonearm before buying a $4K+ cartridge. I'm not familiar with your phono stage, but I'd also want to be sure it's up to snuff before moving into high dollar cartridges.

Thanks, Doug for your kind reply. You told me essentially what I expected to hear. I am getting really good performance out of this set-up now, by the way, after placing a Brightstar Audio BigRock under the table, and spring suspension under that, as recommended by DGarretson in a previous thread. Very effective at de-coupling the table-platform from the rest of the world. I guess that's what prompted my question. Thanks again, Dan

Hi Dan

Dan, this is not a response to your inquiry, however, I have a VPI Scout and I am toying with the idea of upgrading to a new cartridge. I have a list of three cartridges that I am truly interested in and the Lyra Dorian, is one of those. My question to you is: what are your thoughts an this cartridge in the VPI Scout? Pros or cons I would be interested in hearing what you have to say.

I currently have a Grado 'Sonota' installed, and while it does the job, with no major quirks, I previously had a ClearAudio that I really liked a lot, so I have never been really satisfied with the Grado.

Thank you in advance for any input that you can shed on this topic.

Regards,

Arnold E. Watkins
Tedmitz@verizon.net

Hello, Arnold. I'm not a very good person to ask much of in the way of vinyl, as I just got back into this side of the playback chain after leaving it behind 18 years ago, in the hopes that digital had all the answers. It turns out that analogue is much better now than I remember it. I think the Dorian works well in the Scout, in spite of it being lower in mass than is strictly recommended by VPI. It is fast, highly detailed, and very dynamic. It takes some time , however, to get it dialed in for VTA and azimuth. After you get it, though, you'll see that your efforts are very much worth the effort. I don't know if you read my reply to Doug Deacon's post, but I recently put my table on a Brightstar Audio BigRock platform, put spring suspension under that. It made such a difference in how good this set-up sounds that it prompted my question about how good a cartridge you could use before you run out of table. I hope this helps, I need much more advice than I can give, but good luck, and enjoy. Dan