I just upgraded from a Thorens TD 235 to a VPI Classic 3. After dialing it in, the sound is extremely engaging. It has an older Benze Micro LP cart that has been re-tipped.
I started with settings of 68db for Gain and 47k ohm for Load. I found that 68db of gain was too much. It was causing distortion in the preamp. I plugged the cart data into the KAB gain calculator. It said 60db gain was optimum for the cart. A load of 475 ohm worked best with 60db gain. The cart specifications show a load range of 500 – 47K ohm. I figure that 475 is close enough to 500 ohm, so it should be OK.
After getting the gain and load set, I was able to dial in the VTA. At first I thought the VTA was more of an extra feature that wouldn’t do much. By listening to extreme VTA settings, I was able to dial in to get the best sound.
The new TT does bring out best in my system (Classic 3 > Sutherland Hubble > Bat VK-32SE > BAT VK-75SE > EgglestonWorks Rosa). I haven’t use the CD player since getting the TT dialed-in.
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