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VPI Rim Drive

Amongst the bills that came today was a number 10 envelope containing a new belt for the rim drive of my Superscout. The belt is a brown color replacing the black one and feels more "tacky" and soft. I pulled out the first album my hand fell on and played the first track with the old belt. I then removed it and installed the new belt, pushed the table to the motor assembly and listened again. The new belt is better by far. The layering of instruments was much more pronounced, although the width of the stage retained its proportion as before. The highs are certainly cleaner, clearer, and the whole spectrum is faster. Instead of hearing blocks of instruments, I hear seperate instruments cooperating in the event. Loud and thickly arranged sections are effortless unraveled - you can clearly identify all the separate instruments in the cooperation of the piece. Chords can be heard as separate tones contributing to the quality of the chord. Tambourine and other percussion instruments are fast and clean..the jingles are more delicate, brassy, and separate. The lows are more effortless...not louder, just at ease going down, down, and down. I encourage all of you with the dual motor VPI rim drives to get one of these new belts. It is a pain to put on, but you only have to do it once.
128x128stringreen
sonofjim
557 posts
 
The new belt arrived yesterday, impressively fast. It does feel like a compound better suited to it's task. So far I only have about an hour of use on it but it does provide better grip on the platter with even lower contact noise. It seems every adjustment to this drive requires a degree of patience as things settle in but I'm expecting further improvement as it does.
Stringreen, how long did you run yours before you felt the belt was properly "seated"? So far I'm finding I have to dial up the speed on the SDS a bit to maintain the same speed.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen OP
6,478 posts
 
..just an album or 2. I was very careful not to twist it during installation. I heard the increased performance immediately.
zenieth
381 posts
 
Gee ...... I've had mine for over a month and play it daily. It sounds the same today as it did on day one! It took every bit of 10 seconds to replace the old with the new! I'm not feeling or have felt any pain either. Works for me!
sonofjim
557 posts
 
Mine sounds fine as well. If I didn't have a KAB strobe I wouldn't notice the settle in time at all. I have noticed that every time I reposition the motor assembly or ,in this case, change the drive belt, it takes a few hours of settling in for those 33s to be at their most still again. To be honest, I don't notice a huge change in the sound but I do feel better to see the display on the KAB strobe as frozen as possible.
mred
88 posts
 
Sonofjim,

When you said that yours "sounds fine as well" and then later you said "To be honest, I don't notice a huge change in the sound" it sounds like your just lukewarm about the upgrade.Since, mostly, the consensus has been that the upgrade was quite substantial; am I reading you right? I'm curious........ on a scale of one to ten how would you rate it? Was it worth it?
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