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

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

Dan: Like Doug, I would also suggest putting your hard-earned money elsewhere than the cartridge.

At the recent High-End show in Munich, one of the very best-sounding analog systems was in the Taurus room, with Magnepan speakers, Rowland electronics, Raven One table, Schroeder Reference SQ arm, and Dorian cartridge. Of course, it was a major help that the cartridge and arm were set up by Frank Schroeder; who can extract better sound from an analog setup than practically anyone else I know.

In your case, I'd suggest first putting in more work on the turntable, tonearm and phono stage, and if someone local has a widespread reputation as being an outstanding analog setup technician, see if you can hire him to work over and refine your setup.

My experience is that in many cases, time and effort spent on setting up the analog system optimally (or hiring someone who can do a really good job) is worth fully as much as a component upgrade(s).

regards and hth, jonathan carr

I will agree with all of the above for sure. But, I will also say this...If you look one step up from the Dorian at the Argo i, you will upgrade your rig considerably without doing anything else, and for not a huge investment more. The Argo i is simlpy much better than the Dorian IMO.