VPI Traveler vs Scout question & opinions wanted

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by paulewalnutz, Mar 2, 2014.

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  1. paulewalnutz

    paulewalnutz Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NJ
    Excuse my ignorance but what is B stock models? Also I would love a Classic & wouldn't be opposed to a used table but haven't seen nothing in my area available & price point would be critical in getting one.
     
  2. KOWHeigel

    KOWHeigel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manlius, NY
    B stock is a table with a cosmetic blemish that functions 100 % as new.
     
    paulewalnutz likes this.
  3. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Turntables always get the top shelf on the rack. :D
     
    Subvet and paulewalnutz like this.
  4. gklainer

    gklainer Forum Resident

    I have a Classic and really like it. I would look for a used Classic. As far as tweaks, I have the SDS controller and the Periphery clamp and the clamp is more of an improvement then the controller.
     
  5. Upinsmoke

    Upinsmoke Well-Known Member

    Location:
    SE PA
    Do a google search of "B stock VPI Classic". Two stores will pop up. Both are great to deal with. Typically they have a slight blemish but nothing "wrong" with them. In a lot of cases you will get the piece and not find a thing wrong. Who knows.

    Don't be afraid to see what wiggle room is on the price. No one pays asking price.
     
  6. hesson11

    hesson11 Forum Resident

    I actually just did that, and the first link that showed up on Google was this thread! (The two stores were next.)
    -Bob
     
  7. Leigh

    Leigh https://orf.media

    Anyone who has heard the Traveler but prefers the Scout or Classic want to comment on the differences in sound? Does VPI have a "house sound"?
     
  8. steveharris

    steveharris Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    I heard descriptions of the VPI Traveler having a distractingly noisey motor.Just how loud is it?
     
  9. eurekaiv

    eurekaiv Active Member

    Location:
    Orange County, CA
    I had a Traveler, it was ok. No better than a nice tweaked Rega and too expensive IMO. My HW19 IV, that I have less in used than a new Scout, even with the arm, smokes the Traveler I had. I agree with the poster who said buy the best table you can afford, and lightly used can save you a ton. At $2500 a used Classic is well within budget and leaves plenty left over for a real nice cartridge.
     
  10. Art K

    Art K Retired but not tired!

    Location:
    Corvallis, Oregon
    Mine was quite loud. I've also heard from some folks whose Travelers were quiet.

    The Rega I replaced it with is dead quiet.
     
    steveharris likes this.
  11. mcbrion

    mcbrion Forum Resident

    Location:
    Connecticut
    Hmmm…my Traveler isn't 'loud' at all. And I just bought it yesterday.
    By the way, I don't know that I'd say that an HW 19 'smokes' a Traveler. Although it's been a very long time since I had an HW19, the motor on the it, by memory, doesn't seem as quiet as the Traveler.

    I would suggest that an inexpensive cartridge is NOT going to draw information off the record, either. I just passed up buying a Classic 1 today (I considered trying them out side by side until I read a review that compared the two). Here's the site:

    http://www.tonepublications.com/review/vpi-traveler-turntable/

    I then decided to wait until I had a better cartridge on the Traveler before getting all obsessive (I have a Clearaudio Accurate, but it's seen better days, and the top frequencies are gone). A good cartridge (and tonearm) trump a turntable, all other things being equal. My last turntable, before the Nottingham Horizon I have sitting in my living room (which I bought 10 years ago) was a Versa Dynamics 2.3, which I had for man years when I lived in San Francisco. Given its quality, it was easy to hear the cartridge, not the turntable, and I can tell you, the transducer is what people should be hearing, not the turntable OR the tonearm.
    Someone - I think it was Michael Fremer - tested the sound of a JMW tonearm and the 3D tonearm, and naturally, the 3D was better (quell surprise!). But if not him, someone else put an expensive cartridge on a JMW tonearm and a cheap one on the 3D and, as I recall, said that the cheap cartridge 'knocked the teeth out' of the expensive cartridge, although ultimately losing out on points. I can retrace my history on my Mac and post it, but in my experience, the cartridge is more important the the turntable - as long as the turntable isn't throwing noise, instability or something else, into the mix.
    I'd go with the best cartridge on a good turntable (not just an 'ok' turntable) rather than the other way around. That's like putting Costco tires on a Porsche: you're hindering the Porsche.
    May I ask, at least, why you guys think the turntable is more important? I'm just curious, sincerely so, not in some snarky way.
     
  12. mcbrion

    mcbrion Forum Resident

    Location:
    Connecticut
  13. mcbrion

    mcbrion Forum Resident

    Location:
    Connecticut
    Yes.
    VPI used to have a 'house sound': dark. The HW19 was dark, as was the TNT the first time I heard it in Elliott Kallen's home in Northern California back in the mid '90s. HP noted that, with the Classic (and who knows, maybe before it), that VPI's previous 'tables were dark-sounding. But very full, too. 'Thin' was never a work that one uttered in the same sentence as 'VPI.'

    That's why I decided on VPI this time: their newer turntables of the last 5 years are no longer velvety and dark. I had the HW19 at the same time I had a Goldmund Studio/T3F setup and then, right after the San Francisco quake in '89, got the Versa Dynamics. It was easy to hear the darkness in the VPI compared to the Versa (which was on the 'yang' side of the spectrum). A little too yang in retrospect, but it didn't seem that way back then. Even the Goldmund was slightly dark, but it was minor. VPI was firmly in the 'dark-side-of-the-force' dark. But beautiful!
     
  14. eurekaiv

    eurekaiv Active Member

    Location:
    Orange County, CA
    With the megapound lead damped superplatter, a SAMA motor, mk IV suspension and a modest 80's Acos arm, my HW19 sounds/performs way way better than my Traveler ever did. I liked my traveler ok enough but I've got 1k in my 19 and the Traveler is about the same used. The Traveler sounded very similar to my Planar 2/rb250 with a nice subplatter and a 24V motor so I kept that table, sold the Traveler and bought the HW19. Oddly enough the guy I bought the 19 from sold it to buy a Traveler. When I tried to mount a Rega arm on the arm board he had been using, it would not align. Turns out it was drilled at 215mm which is much too short . So it's no wonder the guy wanted to sell it, it must have sounded terrible.
     
  15. mcbrion

    mcbrion Forum Resident

    Location:
    Connecticut
    Hmmm…my Traveler isn't 'loud' at all. And I just bought it yesterday.
    By the way, I don't know that I'd say that an HW 19 'smokes' a Traveler. Although it's been a very long time since I had an HW19, the motor on the it, by memory, doesn't seem as quiet as the Traveler.

    I would suggest that an inexpensive cartridge is NOT going to draw information off the record, either. I just passed up buying a Classic 1 today (I considered trying them out side by side until I read a reviewbecause I'd bought a Traveler recently and decided to wait until I had a better cartridge on it (I have a Clearaudio Accurate, but it's seen better days, and the top frequencies are gone). A good cartridge (and tonearm) trump a turntable, all other things being equal. My last turntable, before the Nottingham Horizon I have sitting in my living room (which I bought 10 years ago) was a Versa Dynamics 2.3. Given it's quality, it was easy to hear the cartridge, not the turntable, and I can tell you, the transducer is what people should be hearing, not the turntable OR the tonearm.
    Someone - I think it was Michael Fremer - tested the sound of a JMW tonearm and the 3D tonearm, and naturally, the 3D was better (quell surprise!). But if not him, someone else put an expensive cartridge on a JMW tonearm and a cheap one on the 3D and, as I recall, said that the cheap cartridge 'knocked the teeth out' of the expensive cartridge, although ultimately losing out on points. I can retrace my history on my Mac and post it, but in my experience, the cartridge is more important the the turntable - as long as the turntable isn't throwing noise, instability or something else, into the mix.
    I'd go with the best cartridge on a good turntable (not just an 'ok' turntable) rather than the other way around. That's like putting Costco tires on a Porsche: you're hindering the Porsche.
    May I ask, at least, why you guys think the turntable is more important? I'm just curious, sincerely so, not in some snarky way.
    Okay, thanks for the feedback!
     
  16. mcbrion

    mcbrion Forum Resident

    Location:
    Connecticut
  17. landonspop

    landonspop New Member

    Location:
    San Antonio
    Where is best place to do this?
    I am comparing Traveler vs Scout JR.
     
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