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VPI redesigning experiment

In my audiophile career I went through all the incarnations of the VPI TT, up to TNT 5. In my pursuit for the absolute sound I discovered Mapleshade's Pierre Sprey who convinced me that maple wood is far superior sounding material than any of the high-tech materials used on TT's. This was also the theory of SHUN-MOOK who designed the highly musical "Bella Voce" speaker. Based on this I designed a 4" thick turntable plinth from solid maple, and a separate one for the tonearm. Pierre is looking into making a maple housing for the SAMA. I am getting the new VPI's HR-X, platter-bearing assembly with their record hold down ring to fit in to the maple plinth, and the JMW 12.5 tonearm in to a separate 4" thick maple plinth. Both plinths will stand on cones on maple bases of the same dimensions. I have high hopes for a natural,unfatiguing, sweet, but not euphonic sound, devoid of harshness. I will let you know of the results. I hope I do not run into uncalculated nightmares or component changing to compensate for differences in sound. Let me know if you are interested.
Ted
tphalieros
talentkeeper
9 posts
 
Slipknot1. Could you elaborate on the 'footers'? What are they? I have gotten rid of my springs on my vpi hw19 kmIV and am contemplating either sorbathane pucks or wood cones such as perhaps maple.
tphalieros OP
39 posts
 
Slipknot, sounds like you've got something going there. I have used the Isoblocks under my acrylic plinth and find them excellent. they have the added benefit of holding slippery surfaces such as acrylic or polished maple, in place securely, something that is a must, for TT's with SAMA or separate armboards (like I plan to make)
For the benefit of those who have not heard about Isoblock footers, they are layers of cork and corrugated rubber in a sqare shape that eliminate vibration transference between components.
Ted
slipknot1
1,423 posts
 
Talentkeeper-
Ted has a description in his above post. To elaborate a bit: they are alternating layers of cork and ribbed rubber. each rubber layer is laid so that the ribs are are in alternating directions. They work very well under maple slabs and do a great job. The maple/Isoblock combination works very well on non-suspension tables, like my Scout.
tphalieros OP
39 posts
 
From what I see it will take about 10-14 days to receive my VPI platter-bearing combo and then start working on the maple bases.
Patience guys!
Ted
tphalieros OP
39 posts
 
Well, I received my VPI HR-X clear- acrylic platter and reverse bearing(ball on top). The bottom part of the bearing shaft that goes into the plinth has a nut and a washer to lock it in place by screwing it to the bottom of the plinth. That nut and washer can be found in any hardware store, I hope that in the future VPI will upscale the quality of the nut and washer, it is certainly not up to par with the asking price. Harry is a VERY nice guy and he accomodates plenty, one big drawback that causes problems to him as well as his customers is the lack of adequate instructions. I regret my complaining to him about the brightness of the JMW tonearm whereas the culprit was not the arm itself but the fact that its female bearing cup was not touching the silicon dumping liquid. I learned of this one year later from the Audiogon forum and when I made the adjustment the brightness was gone.
Now I have to do the difficult stuff, to custom fit the platter assembly and the tonearm to their dedicated 4" thick maple boards. I have noticed that the 2" boards are a lot cleaner, with less cracks and putty repairs than the 4". I guess that the selection of a thicker slab of wood gets more difficult as the thickness increases. Also, the 2" boards came in one solid piece, whereas the 4" were made of 2 pieces of maple glued together, so from an audiophile's standpoint, the 2" maple boards would sound purer and look better.
I will continue with my progress as it advances.
Ted
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