I am not familiar with the VPI Traveler. Looking at the specifications for both the VPI and the SL-M2, I do not understand why the VPI would be an upgrade at all and why it should sound better. Being educated in the electrical engineering field, I am having a difficult time rationalizing that claim. What is it about the VPI that makes it sound so much better. Based on the specifications, they should have very similar performance. Am I missing something? And no, I'm not trying to stir anything up or start a debate. I really want to know what the factors are that would make one draw the conclusion that the VPI Traveler is an upgrade to the Technics SL-M2.
I am basing my opinion on 20 years of listening to many different types of components.
However, let me answer your question specifically. In order to pull the maximum amount of information off of a vinyl record, you need to be able to capture very small movements. The closer you are to reacting to a single molecule of vinyl on the record, the better.
Once you get the basics right, and the turntable is rotating at the right speed and the cartridge is correctly aligned in the groove, the main thing that stops you from doing this is the sensitivity of the cartridge, and vibrations in the platter and tonearm. A $5000 moving-coil cartridge with a few rotations of gold coil will be much more sensitive to the smallest movements of the cantilever than a mass-market moving magnet. It will also put out a tiny signal that is very difficult to use. Any vibration in the tonearm or platter will mask the tiny movements of the cantilever that it is able to convert into an electrical signal.
So if you went and put a Shelter Harmony or a Koetsu Rosewood on your Technics SL-M2, you would not get the sound you paid for. Vibrations in the platter and arm would prevent the cartridge from properly responding to the smallest wiggles in the groove.
The key to a high-end turntable is high-quality bearings and very precise machining, as well as proper isolation of the platter and armboard from the motor. Many high-end manufacturers also use massive platters, which of course requires even more expensive bearings. The tonearm in these turntables is more precisely machined, is better damped, and has more adjustments to properly align the cartridge in the groove.
Naturally, all this costs money. Turntable makers like VPI, Basis, and ClearAudio typically spend 15-20% of the list price of each turntable on the component parts delivered to their factories.
When I was at the VPI factory last year, I got to hear a demo of the 3-D printed arm on a prototype of the VPI direct-drive turntable, which is now in production. Because VPI arm wands are quickly interchangeable, we were able to hear five minutes of a record with a convention steel VPI JMW arm wand, and then switch in less than a minute to the 3-D arm and hear the same five minutes of the record again. Cartridges were identical stock Grado Golds. Even with such a cheap cartridge, the 3-D arm was obviously and audibly superior. This simple demo showed the significance of materials quality in turntables and arms.
Correction: It was in 2013 my audio club was at VPI in Clifton, so make that two years ago.
