I found a VPI Ares3 with the super platter last year and without a tone arm; the previous owner had a Dynavector tone arm which he didn’t wish to part with. The TT came with the arm board drilled for the Dynavector. I picked up a SME Series IV, which is basically the same as the Series V only without a couple of features which I don’t really feel I need. I machined the arm board in my Bridgeport mill to accept the SME with the elongated slot for HTA and made the installation after a fair amount of work.
Just for the fun of seeing how this would compare to my vintage Marantz 6300 with a vintage Audio Technica AT15ss super shibata and a NOS stylus, I removed the AT15ss and moved it over to the Ares3/SME IV. This is a very high end MM cartridge which sounded fabulous in the Marantz, but I wanted to see how much the TT could do. I was blown away! I could hear instruments I didn’t know were there, literally. The bass was far more powerful, the mid range popped and the sound stage expanded up higher and wider. Plus there is zero, I mean zero feedback from high bass levels or foot steps.
However I should say that I did modify the feet on the Ares3: I removed the useless aluminum conical feet which in my opinion do almost nothing for reducing feedback and replaced them with 4 of the SVS Iso-feet sold for subwoofers. These are medium soft durometer rubber doughnuts set into a metal cup with a hole in the middle for a machine screw. I drilled out the hole to accept a rubber shouldered grommet which is about a half inch diameter and then installed the 1/4 20 machine bolt up through the center of the grommet so that the head of the bold snugged up on the rubber shoulder and made no direct contact to the metal cup. I also cut a 1/4 thick neoprene 2 inch circle out of a mouse pad and put that between the metal cup and the underside of the TT base. I can actually use my knuckles and knock on the surface of the table the TT sits on while playing and no sound passes to the Cartridge.
Total investment in the above was $3200 (all parts are in mint condition). Original cost of all components new was around $9K. If you can find a good deal on an older VPI, a super platter and an SME high end arm, do it!
BTW, VPI will machine you a proper arm board for the SME if you don't have the equipment to do it yourself.
Just for the fun of seeing how this would compare to my vintage Marantz 6300 with a vintage Audio Technica AT15ss super shibata and a NOS stylus, I removed the AT15ss and moved it over to the Ares3/SME IV. This is a very high end MM cartridge which sounded fabulous in the Marantz, but I wanted to see how much the TT could do. I was blown away! I could hear instruments I didn’t know were there, literally. The bass was far more powerful, the mid range popped and the sound stage expanded up higher and wider. Plus there is zero, I mean zero feedback from high bass levels or foot steps.
However I should say that I did modify the feet on the Ares3: I removed the useless aluminum conical feet which in my opinion do almost nothing for reducing feedback and replaced them with 4 of the SVS Iso-feet sold for subwoofers. These are medium soft durometer rubber doughnuts set into a metal cup with a hole in the middle for a machine screw. I drilled out the hole to accept a rubber shouldered grommet which is about a half inch diameter and then installed the 1/4 20 machine bolt up through the center of the grommet so that the head of the bold snugged up on the rubber shoulder and made no direct contact to the metal cup. I also cut a 1/4 thick neoprene 2 inch circle out of a mouse pad and put that between the metal cup and the underside of the TT base. I can actually use my knuckles and knock on the surface of the table the TT sits on while playing and no sound passes to the Cartridge.
Total investment in the above was $3200 (all parts are in mint condition). Original cost of all components new was around $9K. If you can find a good deal on an older VPI, a super platter and an SME high end arm, do it!
BTW, VPI will machine you a proper arm board for the SME if you don't have the equipment to do it yourself.