(Sorry, this is a bit long)
I received by new Signature arm last weekend and I love the sound of it so far. I haven't done any A/B tests because I only have one cartridge so all I have to go on is my memory of the previous arm.
First of all, I received the arm, junction box, arm base, mechanical anti-skate mechanism and damping oil in a nice big box from the dealer, Jay at Audio Revelation. He's a nice guy, honest and recommended and shipped this free of charge. He had merely forwarded the package from VPI to me which is fine and expected. The box came beautifully packed in bubble wrap with perfectly sized layers of foam padding. All major components were further sealed in plastic bags. The provided tools were two hex screwdrivers and an allen wrench (not needed). The box also included a Shure VTF gauge which was a nice surprise although I already have one of them.
I quickly realized I was going to have to dismantle the entire Scoutmaster; remove the arm, the junction box and the arm base to put on the new base, new junction box (which I think is identical to the standard one, at least it looks the same from the outside). After attacking the beast with various Philips screwdrivers I was left holding a completely bare Scoutmaster plinth, save the feet which I did not remove.
The instructions are clear and comprehensive but only cover assembly of a Signature arm if bought with a new Scoutmaster, which if I recall correctly comes with junction box and arm base already attached. I followed the instructions about cartridge installation which were obvious enough and then didn't really need them again, except for installation of the mechanical anti-skate mechanism.
Reassembling with the new bits was easy enough. The package doesn't come with a new arm rest or arm holder so you'll need to retain those and remember how things went together. The cool thing about VPI is that *everything* is configurable because they use tiny grub screws so components can be moved and slid and then tightened in place. You really can go to town with all that!
The new anti-skate is fun but I really don't know how much to use or when too much is hurting the music so I set it on minimum. I read somewhere that if in doubt err on the low side when it comes to anti-skate. It's a neat little device anyway. I always thought VPIs philosophy was "no mechanical anti-skate" but I guess they've changed their mind...
I reassembled the cartridge, aligned it, balanced the VTF and azimuth and the VTA and was done.
I didn't use the supplied damping oil at all because I was advised that my cartridge (a Denon 103R) is not low-enough compliance to really need it.
So what did it sound like? After a couple of hours of disassembly and reassembly I finally sat back to listen to some music. I've recently been listening to the Red Hot Ray Brown Trip 45-rpm double LP so I played that again. The impact was not subtle. Instruments had more power and depth and seemed more tuneful than before. More bass? Not really. But it certainly was tighter. And I could swear there was more high-freq "air" in the mix. There's a lot of contributing factors to making music sound more like music and I reckon this arm upgrade goes further towards that goal in a number of ways. It's not as significant an upgrade as, say, a preamp upgrade but it's a good turntable one, and well worth the $700 trade-in, in my opinion.
I believe the Nordost wire needs some break-in time so I'm hoping for incremental improvements over the next weeks. I might have a go with the damping oil in the unipivot mechanism soon, to see what difference it makes.
Let us know how you get on with your when you get it.
I received by new Signature arm last weekend and I love the sound of it so far. I haven't done any A/B tests because I only have one cartridge so all I have to go on is my memory of the previous arm.
First of all, I received the arm, junction box, arm base, mechanical anti-skate mechanism and damping oil in a nice big box from the dealer, Jay at Audio Revelation. He's a nice guy, honest and recommended and shipped this free of charge. He had merely forwarded the package from VPI to me which is fine and expected. The box came beautifully packed in bubble wrap with perfectly sized layers of foam padding. All major components were further sealed in plastic bags. The provided tools were two hex screwdrivers and an allen wrench (not needed). The box also included a Shure VTF gauge which was a nice surprise although I already have one of them.
I quickly realized I was going to have to dismantle the entire Scoutmaster; remove the arm, the junction box and the arm base to put on the new base, new junction box (which I think is identical to the standard one, at least it looks the same from the outside). After attacking the beast with various Philips screwdrivers I was left holding a completely bare Scoutmaster plinth, save the feet which I did not remove.
The instructions are clear and comprehensive but only cover assembly of a Signature arm if bought with a new Scoutmaster, which if I recall correctly comes with junction box and arm base already attached. I followed the instructions about cartridge installation which were obvious enough and then didn't really need them again, except for installation of the mechanical anti-skate mechanism.
Reassembling with the new bits was easy enough. The package doesn't come with a new arm rest or arm holder so you'll need to retain those and remember how things went together. The cool thing about VPI is that *everything* is configurable because they use tiny grub screws so components can be moved and slid and then tightened in place. You really can go to town with all that!
The new anti-skate is fun but I really don't know how much to use or when too much is hurting the music so I set it on minimum. I read somewhere that if in doubt err on the low side when it comes to anti-skate. It's a neat little device anyway. I always thought VPIs philosophy was "no mechanical anti-skate" but I guess they've changed their mind...
I reassembled the cartridge, aligned it, balanced the VTF and azimuth and the VTA and was done.
I didn't use the supplied damping oil at all because I was advised that my cartridge (a Denon 103R) is not low-enough compliance to really need it.
So what did it sound like? After a couple of hours of disassembly and reassembly I finally sat back to listen to some music. I've recently been listening to the Red Hot Ray Brown Trip 45-rpm double LP so I played that again. The impact was not subtle. Instruments had more power and depth and seemed more tuneful than before. More bass? Not really. But it certainly was tighter. And I could swear there was more high-freq "air" in the mix. There's a lot of contributing factors to making music sound more like music and I reckon this arm upgrade goes further towards that goal in a number of ways. It's not as significant an upgrade as, say, a preamp upgrade but it's a good turntable one, and well worth the $700 trade-in, in my opinion.
I believe the Nordost wire needs some break-in time so I'm hoping for incremental improvements over the next weeks. I might have a go with the damping oil in the unipivot mechanism soon, to see what difference it makes.
Let us know how you get on with your when you get it.