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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
tphalieros OP
39 posts
 
OK I finally placed the sub-boards under the platter and tonearm plinths, each standing on Isoblock feet ( the cork and rubber combination). If I had 3 words to characterize my sound they would be: 1) Unfatiguing. 2) Relaxed. 3) Natural. The dynamics are all there but you only hear them when they are called for, I had to increase the volume because the backround noise floor got in to vanishing point, until the first crescendo kicked in, WOW!
I am still tweeking.
Stay tuned.
By the way TT looks great, Big, but handsome. I hope I can post photo's.
One correction: Pierre told me that the maple used is Virginia grown, the reason given it sounds better than the Canadian!
twl
3,251 posts
 
Ted, congratulations on your adventure. I would like to suggest using the Sistrum Audiopoints under the plinth instead of the cork/rubber feet. They are made of brass, and very well designed. I have them under the wood base of my Teres, and am very happy with the result. They use a special brass alloy that is designed to transfer the vibration to ground, and are very effective at doing this. I think this is in keeping with your design ideas and also Pierre's. I believe you will like the effect it has on your TT. Dynamics will be even better with these Audiopoints compared to the absorptive composition of the cork/rubber feet.
tphalieros OP
39 posts
 
Dear TWL
This is what Pierre also suggested to me, to use his tripple brass points. I am hesitant only because I used them in the past and gave my TT some unwanted hint of brightness, a subtle sense of ringing, To be fair when I used them the TT's plinth was acrylic sitting on sqare pucks of ebony. Ebony is hard in sound, although very musical. I'll probably use the brass again to see what results I get with maple this time.
Ted
tphalieros OP
39 posts
 
This week I played with the mounting of the tonearm and instead of having it sit flat on the maple armboard (where it is fastened with 3 solid brass scrues which sound better than conventional steel ones), I placed a 1/8" diameter brass rod near both ends and then scrued it down sitting on the rod pieces. What a difference! Piano sounds true to life, the whole presentation tighten up and cleared even more than before, overall, it became more dynamic with more life to it. Thus I verified one more of Pierre's point that contrary to what is thought, when we mount tonearms or bearing assemblies and the like, the fewer points of contact between 2 surfaces, the better the sound will be, as the transference of vibrations lessens considerably.
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