Stand for VPI Scout

I have a Well Tempered Labs table and have it sitting on 60 lbs of mass on tiptoes. The first 30 lbs is a chunk of dense engineered stone (Absolute Black granite would be even better) and then a 30 lb chunck of 3" thick hard rock maple cutting board on top of it. The turntable sits atop it all.

I noticed a very large improvement in soundstaging and bass. Versus just granite itself, or the table by itself, the maple really adds warmth. I also tried Audiopoint, by Star Sound, tiptoes under the table: The sound became very, very clean, and neutral, but sterile and bland sounding in my system.

My system and tastes needs some warmth and emotion. IF you are running tube amp or preamp, you may get different results. I run passive pre and SS amp. I do run tube phono stage, with Amperex tubes. I may try Mullards soon. I want my music to sound like a live show in a nightclub. I crave "presence". I have tried many cartridges on this turntable, and the Denon 103R is the best by a long shot. It is "alive" and dynamic. I would like to ultimately try a Shelter, but that is a chunk more dough.

For darn sure make certain that you have azimuth set properly on your tonearm and vta! Once I learned how to get azimuth set correctly with a meter, and then kept making tiny adjustments to vta, I now can get the SPOT where the cartridge simply rides perfectly in the groove. Words can not describe the difference it makes in the sound and presentation. My turntable slays my $1400 vacumn tube CD player, and it ain't no slouch. I have emotion is spades.

I can only speak of what I have read, but some say the basic VPI Scout has some potential speed stability issues? The 300 RPM motor upgrade is suppose to solve this. Good question to ask before buying used or new.

Good Luck,

R.

Red2 has some good points and good advice.
I just had a 20x30 inch piece of granite cut and polished as the base for my Aries to sit on..According to the maker, granite is much better than even marble for isolation and resonance control. I use a Plateau audio rack on spikes through carpet to the slab floor.Then MDF board as a sub base, and finally the granite base perched on Tip-Toe type cones for the table to sit atop.

Isolation is the key here. What ever stand you choose, you want to make sure its level, isolated from the floor with spikes or such, provides a good base to put your isolating device like the granite slab, Cloud 10,Black Diamond shelf/pucks or wood block on. Good luck!--Ken

I've got my Scout/Grado Sonata sitting on a 3" thick 16x20 block of eastern hard maple I had custom made. That is supported with 4 Black Diamond Racing cones, sitting on a Billy Bags Pro stand. Considering how much the maple block improves the sound compared to sitting on mdf, I'd consider some sort of isolation/tuning essential.