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VPI Rim Drive

Amongst the bills that came today was a number 10 envelope containing a new belt for the rim drive of my Superscout. The belt is a brown color replacing the black one and feels more "tacky" and soft. I pulled out the first album my hand fell on and played the first track with the old belt. I then removed it and installed the new belt, pushed the table to the motor assembly and listened again. The new belt is better by far. The layering of instruments was much more pronounced, although the width of the stage retained its proportion as before. The highs are certainly cleaner, clearer, and the whole spectrum is faster. Instead of hearing blocks of instruments, I hear seperate instruments cooperating in the event. Loud and thickly arranged sections are effortless unraveled - you can clearly identify all the separate instruments in the cooperation of the piece. Chords can be heard as separate tones contributing to the quality of the chord. Tambourine and other percussion instruments are fast and clean..the jingles are more delicate, brassy, and separate. The lows are more effortless...not louder, just at ease going down, down, and down. I encourage all of you with the dual motor VPI rim drives to get one of these new belts. It is a pain to put on, but you only have to do it once.
stringreen
sonofjim
557 posts
 
Mred,
You misunderstood what I wrote I'm afraid. When I said I didn't notice a huge change in sound I was referring to the slight speed variation I note when I move or otherwise alter the rim drive. It seems to take around 6 hours or so to settle back in to where I'm happy visually with the results I'm seeing on the KAB strobe. During this time I don't notice any real sonic problems; that's all. Others don't seem to report this. Am I doing something wrong or am I noticing something they don't? Who knows? I do feel better to see a frozen display though and I can't imagine this table sounding much better. On a scale of 1 to 10, 8-9 easy. Much better than the original belts in my opinion.
As for the new belt, I agree with Stringreen that it is an improvement over the old compound. It has a better grip on the platter and turns it more smoothly with less contact noise. The strobe reading has settled back down for me. The change in sound with the new belt seems somewhat subtle but it's a worthwhile change for all the things I just mentioned. They sent it for free. What other upgrade can you do for that price?
stringreen's avatar
stringreen OP
5,112 posts
 
To these ears, there is a significant improvement in the sound. I talked to Harry, and he agreed. I suspect there have been many versions of the belt. My rim drive is one of the first that was shipped. Perhaps there are those with an improved original belt as compared to mine, however, in my system with the 2 rim drive belts I have, the newer one is significantly better.
mm2550
16 posts
 
Has anybody compared the Rim Drive to Teres Verus yet? I have a VPI Scout, but I might eventually might want to upgrade to a Teres/Graham Phantom one day. I think the Verus might be a great intermediate step to hold me over until save up for such an expensive upgrade...which could take a few years.

By the way, I know the Rim Drive does not work with the Scout yet, but this is a moot point, because VPI will a Rim Drive for the Scout is a few months...

Thanks,

Mark
johnjc
63 posts
 
I hope to compare soon In engineering terms think the rim drive wins as it uses a massive flywheel and using a far better motor, my friend had a lot more set up issues with his Verus and he is a lot more skilled around set up than me.
You could also change to a super scoutmaster the price is $350 not bad! just means you have to transfer bearing arm and platter I just went through a similar process as I had a HW19 Mk4 and keprt arm platter and bearing so now have a super scoutmaster with a old lead platter and the Terminator tonearm so not only did I get the upgrade from the rim but using a arm that is a lot better too
As soon as we do our comparision we will both print out our thoughts here we will use the same system to compare and put both our opinions in print so hopefuly it be as balanced as we can get it
mred
88 posts
 
Sonofjim,

Thanks for clarifing; I misread your intent. So, 1-10;how worthwhile is the Rim drive?
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