Fremer/SSM w/Rim Drive

Michael Fremer wrote, "Ultimately, what counts is how a product sounds, and the Super Scoutmaster Reference Rim Drive sounded in a word, fantastic." "...Unless you're willing to move into +$25,000 territory, you could buy one and be done -- but I'm not sure you'd gain much, if anything, until you hit a much higher price point,..."

I am also puzzled by VPIs new tables. The Classic has a fixed motor, I thought having an isolated motor was better and the reason they discontinued the HW-19. It is suppose to be better isolated than the other tables but I am not sure how. Apparently it is much easier to bring out new tables than to keep their dealers informed or update their web site. I am one of their dealers and I have no idea of the relative merits of the Scout 2, the Classic or the Scoutmaster. I suppose I could just order all of them but I am a small dealer with limited space and money.

I have a Shelter 501 cartridge. My hope is that I could get a new arm wand, like the one in the Scout II, plug and play, which would be a better match for my cartridge. Right now, I have a weight to help make for a better match. Also, I sprung for the Super Platter...about $800. Now they have a new aluminum platter,less than a year after the super platter came out. Maybe aluminum prices came down and made it more affordable. Anyway, I'd rather have seen VPI spend its R&D developing a Rim Drive for Aries / Scout, if its technically possible...the Verus works with the Scout, or so I hear.

Note the ad copy for the new VPI 'Classic':

*New investment cast aluminum high inertia platter with precision inverted bearing.*

-Acrylic platters now suck

*Speed stability on par with a master tape - Due to the rigid mounting of motor - platter - tonearm there isn't any random motion to cause speed instabilities.*

-SAMAs now suck, rim drives are irrelevant, SDS no longer necessary

*Absolutely solid, non-resonating laminated one-piece chassis holding all comonents(sic). This is not a wooden frame; it is a solid laminated 2.5" thick MDF block with 11 gauge steel attached to the top with silicone and long bolts through all the layers. The chassis weighs 30 pounds and is totally non-resonant.*

-Acrylic/steel-or-aluminum plinths now suck

It seems VPI, in it's attempt to be everything to everyone, keeps a firm finger on the diy/small manufacturer scene, and produces products designed not for a company 'sound', but to cash in on what's popular at the moment. 'Hey, idlers are a happening scene, let's copy Teres and produce a rim drive'. 'Oh, man, lot's of diy-ers building massy, CLD plinths-we'd better jump on that bandwagon'. Etc.

Looking at what Albert Porter et al are doing with the SP-10s, does anyone wonder if VPI isn't working on a direct drive?

As per the poster above, even the dealers don't know how to present this scatter-shot tt approach to a prospective customer. Even given the basketball-sized grain of salt one must take with the Fremer review, how does his analysis square with this VPI statement for the 'Classic':

*The sound of the “Classic Turntable” is fast, clean, wide open, with deep powerful bass, and unequalled in speed stability. The “Classic Turntable” gives any turntable made regardless of price a serious "run for the money." This completely new design has produced the simplest and one of the best sounding VPI tables to date.*

Strange stuff.

Give it 2 years or so and a new generation of belt drive tables will be introduced to address the perceived shortcomings of direct contact between the motor and platter.