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VPI Turntable Owners Thread

VPI Dual Pivot Assembly Help

Anyone who has installed the Dual Pivot Assembly successfully have any tips they can give me? I just tired and could use a little bit more help other than the instructions provided. Any input helps, thank you in advance.
 
macman007 said:
Yea, the Avenger adds the ability swing multiple arms, but you can do the same thing with multiple wands cheaper, provided you don't mind making a few adjustments between arms, primarily VTA and AS if you use it. There are other things but to my eye thats the primary difference. If they sold the PS 3 arm capable, Avenger sales might suffer.
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FWIW, you can put more arms on the Prime and the Prime Signature.

tonearm adapt2.png
tonearm adapt.jpg
 
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HighFi.ED said:
VPI Dual Pivot Assembly Help

Anyone who has installed the Dual Pivot Assembly successfully have any tips they can give me? I just tired and could use a little bit more help other than the instructions provided. Any input helps, thank you in advance.
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I have installed the dual pivot (actually the ruby tipped sapphire thrust plate one). It works as intended. But so far, it doesnt seem to allow for getting phase angle to zero for correct azimuth as measured on Adjust+ or AnalogMagik. and it reduces crosstalk when measured as well. So I am still working on it. There are some threads on the VPI forum that talk about how to load the dual pivot.
 
HighFi.ED said:
VPI Dual Pivot Assembly Help

Anyone who has installed the Dual Pivot Assembly successfully have any tips they can give me? I just tired and could use a little bit more help other than the instructions provided. Any input helps, thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

Brent AKA BRF Has a posted some good tips on the VPI Forum. I don't have a direct link but if you search for Dual Pivot you'll find it. Especially helpful when it comes to getting the correct force on the pivot.
 
There are several ways to set it up, so no worries. As long as it sounds good. I am noticing a very very slight loss of HF shimmer but more precise imaging and definition in the soundstage, and better bottom end. Only negative is it may be more susceptible to footfalls depending on setup.

Photo of the ruby dual pivot on the sapphire thrust plate...

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edwyun said:
There are several ways to set it up, so no worries. As long as it sounds good. I am noticing a very very slight loss of HF shimmer but more precise imaging and definition in the soundstage, and better bottom end. Only negative is it may be more susceptible to footfalls depending on setup.

Photo of the ruby dual pivot on the sapphire thrust plate...

View attachment 1794108
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Nice! Where can I get one of those? I think I’m going to hold off until I get the Ruby Dual Pivot and Sapphire Thrust Plate.
 
HighFi.ED said:
Nice! Where can I get one of those? I think I’m going to hold off until I get the Ruby Dual Pivot and Sapphire Thrust Plate.
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Joe Pittman at Kosmic Audio ( joe@kosmic.us )

The sapphire thrust plate is supposed to limit friction as well as prevent scarring of the thrust plate some have seen on the original stainless steel thrust plate.
 

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After a week long of reading info and trial and error I finally got my Dual Pivot set to where I feel comfortable leaving it at. I was even able to get the one on my Classic Signature with a breeze. Thanks for all the help!
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I have a VPI HW16 RCM (the original, not the 16.5). Its 30+ years old. Recently when using it when I removed a record, the spindle came with it. I can stick the spindle back in and still use the machine but the spindle comes right back out every time I remove a record now and I don't want to strip the particle board stuff any further.

I was thinking of getting some wood glue or epoxy and sticking the spindle back in to see if that would hold.

I guess I could call VPI and see if they'd sell me a new platter. If the HW 16.5 platter is the same, they'd likely have the part.

Anyone have experience with this; any advice?


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TSmith8605 said:
I have a VPI HW16 RCM (the original, not the 16.5). Its 30+ years old. Recently when using it when I removed a record, the spindle came with it. I can stick the spindle back in and still use the machine but the spindle comes right back out every time I remove a record now and I don't want to strip the particle board stuff any further.

I was thinking of getting some wood glue or epoxy and sticking the spindle back in to see if that would hold.

I guess I could call VPI and see if they'd sell me a new platter. If the HW 16.5 platter is the same, they'd likely have the part.

Anyone have experience with this; any advice?

From what I can see, no the VPI 16.5 Platter is not the same as the 16.

The 16.5 Platter has a 3 screw mounting attachment that attaches the Platter to the Platter Motor Arbor.

I never played with a model 16, so have no idea how the Platter attaches to the Motor?

I'd say yeah, an epoxy glue job would probably be your easiest and least expensive bet.
Something like a 2-Part Epoxy like JB Weld should do the trick. The repair should be adequately strong.

Still I guess a call to VPI wouldn't hurt, as I surely don't know much if anything about the older 16 model.

Mark_VPI_16.5_Photo_2.jpg


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I recently acquired An Aries 1 with SDS. Sometimes the SDS doesn’t settle to 72v and instead stays at 115v. It sometimes flickers back and forth between the two. I’m not hearing a sonic difference. Just doesn’t work as it should. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Congratulations on your Aries 1 . Regarding the SDS , reboot it , unplugged it for at least 2 mins the plug and turn on see if it solves the problem .

hope this helps ,

930
 
I have it plugged into a power conditioner which I turn off when not in use so the power gets cycled often. In addition, I oiled the motor bearing and checked the platter was spinning freely. Thanks for your input.
 
markd51 said:
. . . From what I can see, no the VPI 16.5 Platter is not the same as the 16.

The 16.5 Platter has a 3 screw mounting attachment that attaches the Platter to the Platter Motor Arbor.

I never played with a model 16, so have no idea how the Platter attaches to the Motor?. . .
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Thanks for the response. I glued a rubber or sorbothane mat onto the turntable covering the mounting screws but I recall that the platter mounts the same as the 16.5. I'd have to remove the mat to get at the screws.
 
Cliff O said:
I recently acquired An Aries 1 with SDS. Sometimes the SDS doesn’t settle to 72v and instead stays at 115v. It sometimes flickers back and forth between the two. I’m not hearing a sonic difference. Just doesn’t work as it should. Any advice would be appreciated.
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This is a design flaw in the SDS with the threshold detector that determines when the motor is switched on and off; despite VPI's claims that this is a rare occurrence, the potential exists in every unit they ever produced, though it shows up more often on the lower power motors (5.5/7.5W).

It is also easily fixed by paralleling R59 with a 1K Ohm resistor. There is a thread on their forum that covers the problem and the fix:

http://www.vpiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8956#p32148
 
Do you have images? I'm pretty sure I can figure it out, but nice to have an image pointing out the resistor before I open it up.

Oddly, once I oiled the motor I haven’t had any issues but I’d still like to apply the change since it is a known problem so I’ve ordered the resistor.

Thanks,
Cliff
 
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