VPI TNT Turntables

The VPI Scout and many VPI turntables that have the motor in the plinth, send vibrations throughout the turntable.

The heavy TNT motor using the "VPI designed" motor case, mounted outside the plinth, does not send vibrations throughout the turntable.

The motor should never be in the plinth IMO, that is a cheap design!

You guys are both right, the hurst motor is the tables weak point and yes it should not be in the plinth. I was amazed years back to see tons of people selling their tnts to get into the then new classic. I don't see how they thought the classic was a better table??  I guess some folks will always chase the latest new thing.....
I do find you have to be careful with vpi, a lot of their changes were made to lower manufacturing costs and marketed as "better"

"I do find you have to be careful with vpi, a lot of their changes were made to lower manufacturing costs and marketed as "better"

Very true, especially the last 15 years!

The problem is not just having the motor in the plinth. Vibrations are transmitted through the belt itself, and they cause all sorts of distortion. I went to great lengths to isolate the motor from the plinth on my VPI table, and I used two different motors, one much "quieter" than the other. I still had a drastic improvement when I went to the (much smoother) Teres motor and ditched the Hurst motor/belt drive configuration altogether.  

Don_c55 - I'd be interested to see you design and market a successful line of high-end audio products. Not so easy. VPI has used cheaper materials because they have to. My Aries 1 turntable is a good example - they used real wood in the construction of the plinth, and made a fantastic turntable. But it was too expensive to produce that way, so in the later iterations they used different (yes, cheaper) materials. Harry Weisfeld said somewhere that the Aries 1 would be an $8000 TT if they sold it today. Nothing wrong with an $8000 turntable but that's a pretty small market niche.  

"I do find you have to be careful with vpi, a lot of their changes were made to lower manufacturing costs and marketed as "better"

Though you may consider this a distinction without a difference, a number of changes may have been made to keep prices form rising,  HW has maintained that it has become far more difficult (translation: expensive) to obtain the quality acrylic that was used to machine what were probably some of VPI's very best platters.  Thus the return to aluminum.  Yes, the original VPI platters were aluminum and lead and the movement from those platters to acrylic and lead so was widely praised that the aluminum was dropped for many, many years.  Then, as now, many who used the aluminum platters sought all sorts of mats for them.

Lead was discontinued as well, though it had very favorable audible advantages: heavy weight and great damping properties.  The shift here was attributed to health effects during manufacture.

And yes, marketing masters that they are, every change was promoted as improving the sound and they had the published reviews to second their promotions.  And along the way they were making improvements in other ways, such as with their bearings, flywheels and speed controllers.