Anyone NOT like the sound of VPI?

Mapman,
I respect your opinion but the Vandersteens solve all of the size and room placement problems of which you speak without the use of ports and with flat in room response custom tailored to your room. Equalization in the lower frequencies is not deletorious(below about 150 hz) which is why Vandersteen does this. That's all I'll say about speakers. Sorry everyone. I realize this is not the loudspeaker forum.

Dealer set ups are always questionable. I have never had a dealer set mine up correctly. Chances are you have a new cartridge and even if it was set up perfectly, it will change as it breaks in. I don't know any dealer that is willing to put in the hours necessary to properly adjust a turntable. Many of you know just how much time doing an overhang adjust with the Mint requires. Next comes Azimuth, VTA, etc....tooooooooooo much

"Equalization in the lower frequencies is not deletorious(below about 150 hz) which is why Vandersteen does this."

That's fine. I think I said equalization was one possible solution.

But my assertion is that there are many good ported speaker designs that do not have "fat mid bass".

I'd assert I own 4 designs that do not and one older design I've owned for years (Ohm L, front ported) that perhaps does to some extent.

One of the ported designs I own (Ohm 5s, bottom ported)also has equalization adjustments (2 bass, 1 mid, 1 treble) to help match to room acoustics on board. Some like that feature and some do not. It works very well for me in that I want to be able to adjust those speakers to different rooms and acoustics without having to rely on an external solution.

Aren't room acoustics a common determining factor for frequency response with most any speaker and placement? This can affect ported and non ported designs as well.

I have a nice budget set up with a scoutmaster TT and a stock JMW 9. No problems with low bass. I'm using a dynavector 20XL and a Sutherland Ph3D phono pre.

Wow... so much info. You guys definitely give me hope. I know that the dealer who setup my tt the other day chose the heaviest VTF possible (2.0). I don't have any turntable tools; I need to invest in some.

So, trying to summarize what I've learned from you guys:

- VPI is not known for anemic bass; something in my cartridge or setup must be the culprit.

- A wall shelf may not make that much difference, but that the MDF platform that my TT is sitting on is not ideal and I should get a maple platform of some kind (even if it sits on the MDF platform?)

- Lowering the tonearm so that at the base it is lower than the cartridge will help bass

- I can even increase the VTF so that it goes beyond the recommended value for my cartridge (2.0) and increase bass.

I still haven't figured out what SDS is - can someone enlighten me?

Thanks for all the speaker tips.