VPI Scout setup after watching Frefmer's video

Stringreen,

I still don't understand your point about the counter-intuitive (CI), even after your many posts telling everyone how unnecessary it is. Even if you have one tonearm and use the CI to set it up, you will still need it since it was used to dial in the VTF and azimuth. You can't remove it as you'd be back right where you started. So how does it have no use at all after setting up one tonearm?

Also, the VTF and azimuth can, and frequently do change over time, and the CI allows minute adjustments to one parameter while practically not affecting another, which is virtually impossible with the counterweight alone due to its size and wieght, not matter how many times you've set up a VPI tonearm.

I wrote a response to this but it was not published so I'll try again. If you think that you need the CounterIntuitive, by all means use it. Here are some things though you might have missed in setting up your VPI arms. You do not need to loosen the rear counterweight to set vtf or azimuth. For azimuth, know that the set screw bears pressure on a gasket to affix the weight using pressure fit. It is easy enough to just force the rear counterweight around the axis slightly until the proper azimuth is achieved. You do not have to loosen the rear counterweight to adjust the vtf either. In the rear of the VPI tonearm, there is a hole that accommodates a supplied Allen wrench. By counterclockwise rotation of the wrench, you lighten the force...by clockwise rotation you make it heavier. You are adjusting a moveable weight back/ forth within the arm tube.

Stringreen,

The point is that the CI makes all these adjustments a breeze, and allows very small adjustments that, in my experience, fiddling with the counterweight does not.

I used to own a Scout and now own a Classic. On both tables, the counterweight could not be forced "around the axis slightly until the proper azimuth is achieved." It can be only either very tightly fixed/fastened with the screw, or it will be way too loose to make a proper adjustment. There is no in-between, which makes sense as it's a metal screw that exerts a pressure against a metal tube. O-rings might help with smaller adjustments (by restricting excessive counterweight movement), but they will not provide the precision, the CI offers.

Insofar as there is a screw inside the back of the tonearm that perhaps allows small VTF adjustments, it is way more time consuming that simply sliding the CI.

Actjsreus... Why argue with you. You can and I do force the rear coutnerweight with extreme accuracy...in minute increments without any damage at all to the arm. Obviously you are in need of this thing that I still see no use for except for the times that you exchange arm tubes. You are a proud owner and good luck to you. As for others... Be assured that the arm can easily be set up without this added expense.

Stringreen,

I find it very perplexing that you've been criticizing this tool from the very beginning, even without trying it. My sense is you have some sort of a purist attitude block that prevents you from admitting the usefulness and benefit of the CI. From what I've seen, you're just about the only VPI table owner who finds it of no use. The added expense is trivial against the benefit of saved time, added ease and less stress this tool offers.

Btw, I'm not "arguing" with you as to me the benefits of the CI in adjusting the VTF and azimuth are objectively (yes, objectively) verifiable given the nature of the VPI tonearms, and so are beyond a polemic. I was simply trying to understand why you insist on your position even though you have no solid arguments to support it.