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Congrats from a fellow Prime owner (#22 here!)

Posted by Drew769 (A) on October 5, 2015 at 09:16:01

In Reply to: Warning! There is a danger to owning a VPI Prime posted by texanater on October 3, 2015 at 07:03:21:

I was lucky enough to get one of the first delivered Primes back last fall (Mine is actually serial #22, which was featured in their manual at the time...kind of fun). I agree on the upgrade comments! I ended up with new phono interconnects, new phono amp, new cartridge, new turntable platform, new cover, new speaker cables....ugggh! It's all worth it, though, and I agree on all of your comments about the Prime's PRaT. Here are a few comments, relative to your questions...

- I went with a Boos Block 2" Maple cutting board from Amazon. I think I paid $75, and it was a steal. It's 24" by 18" - the perfect footprint for the Prime. For isolation blocks, I bought 2" square "sandwich" blocks from Amazon for something like $0.22 each (yes, cents), as opposed to $25 for four from certain online retailers. Exactly the same product, just repurposed/repackaged. I doubled them up - two blacks per corner, or 8 total. Put them under the cutting board. The table goes directly on the board - the Prime feet already have springy ball bearings that provide some isolation as well. You don't want Vibrapods, as they will suck the life (PRaT) out of the table IMO.

- I bought my cover from TT Squares. They do amazing work - the cover makes the table, IMO.

- I went with an Ortofon Cadenza Black cartridge - yes, it's pricey, byut I got a good deal and the TT and tonearm work beautifully with the cartridge.

- For a Phono Pre-Amp, I upgraded to a Rogue Ares. It sounds amazing, and has lots of flexibility in terms of loading and gain. It incorporates onboard CineMag SUTs (same ones Bob's uses), and you can choose blues or reds.

- I have the Phoenix Roadrunner tach and the Eagle speed device. They are worth it, but you could start with just the tach. The stability of speed is good right out of the box, BUT the speed of the table IMO is a bit fast. Use the tach to dial in the correct speed using the belt tension/placement.

- If you really want to go nuts, buy from VPI the non-tapered HRX pulley and a second drive belt. You need the Phoenix RR and Eagle (or the VPI speed controller) for this, though, as you would lose your second speed without a separate speed control.

Enjoy!!!

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