New VPI purchase

I have an oldie but goody...a Superscoutmaster...that I upgraded with Classic platter, Rim Drive, new VPI 3D arm, 2nd pivot.....and so it goes.

I have an oldie but goody...a Superscoutmaster...that I upgraded with Classic platter, Rim Drive, new VPI 3D arm, 2nd pivot.....and so it goes.

Hello,

Great choices, Especially if it is the Fatboy and not the standard tonearm. Most important: be in a good state of mind and very comfortable. Leave the stylus guard on until you are ready to set the VTA/ VTF. I know if you balance the weight and take the stylus guard off the tonearm will go up. It’s better than crashing down and crushing the cantilever. Just leave on the stylus guard while making the wired connections to the cartridge. The great thing is that cart goes great with that table. Also, it has a replicant stylus so it is a little more forgiving and has a great detailed sound with a warm touch. 
If you have a ball bearing use it to level the table/ platter. It works way better than a level because the ball bearing rolls to the low side. 
these do have anti-skate. Most people don’t use it and give the tonearm cable a twist and call it a day. I am very picky when setting up tt. I use the Ortifon record to help nail down the anti-skate. 
To break in the cartridge let it rest on a record for two days straight. Then 10-20 hours of play and you are good to go. If you don’t have a way to keep people and pets from touching the turntable while the stylus is sitting on the record for two days then just play some records. This break-in methods is from Ortofon not me. I did just do this with my ne cart and it worked very well. 
last but not least: NO LIQUIDS ON THE STYLUS AND NO GEL OR GOO PADS. 

Sorry for yelling but that is a $3k cart. If you use those and something happens to the cart Ortofon will know. Very carfully dry brush with the included brush BACK TO FRONT. If you don’t feel comfortable then don’t touch it. When you do clean the stylus Mack sure the tonearm is not locked down. I know this sounds counter intuitive. If you lock down the tonearm you are more likely to crush or put to much weight on the cantilever. 
You will be fine with the tools provided by VPI with that stylus. I have saw the owner Matt setup the Fatboy in 5 minutes at AXPONA. When you get better tools and more comfortable you can get super picky. 
Please take your time. It’s well wort it in the end. 
I hope this helps. 
 

Great tt !!! The only thing I would change is weird tonarm wiring with that strange not necessary connector. I really don’t understand why to have extra barrier on signal path in form of that connector !?

@ghdprentice     You suggest your change of TT produced better sound by 'an order of magnitude'.   That is 10x better sound.  Accepting each of us has different measurement scales I still find it difficult to align with that.

Perhaps it would be interesting to discuss the philosophy of according performance evaluation figures to what we hear.  This has been vogue in the wine business for many years now but so far as I know has not been widely used by hi-fi critics,

On wine, Robert Parker who started it, has made a great deal of money and set himself up as the unchallengable authority.  Many other wine critics have followed him. Most mark out of 20, but for some reason not using 0 to 10 (?not to be insulting)..  10 is massively faulty, undrinkable -  I suppose think pocket sized transistor radios from the 60s.  20 is perfect.  We are not told if the scale is linear or to some extent geometric.  As a wine lover of many years standing who has consumed a few bottles rated 20 by some, my impression is that the scale might be linear or perhaps mildly negatively geometric, i.e the jump from 15 to 16 is greater than that from 18 to 19.

If there is to be a single marking system for the whole market, of course hi-fi is like wine in that there are many styles that must be accommodated by the critic and as far as possible treated even-handedly - super difficult in hi-fi.

Like evaluating hi-fi, wine tasting is overwhelmingly subjective and my take is to be sceptical about the usefulness of allocating marks to subjectively perceived quality levels.

Now don't get me onto cars.  Jeremy Clarkson rates them out of 5, but uses half points at 3 and 4.   I'm not sure I recall many 5s, although there have been a few 1s.