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REVIEWS<br />
VPI<br />
SCOUT JR £1,650<br />
Scouting<br />
for boys<br />
The smallest member of VPI’s Scout range<br />
pitches into a competitive market. Ed Selley<br />
thinks it deserves a merit badge<br />
I<br />
f you’re in the market for<br />
a turntable in the price<br />
range of £1,500-£2,000 at<br />
the moment, you are truly<br />
spoilt for choice. This price point has<br />
become keenly contested and<br />
manufacturers have been pulling out<br />
the stops to produce options that<br />
reflect their philosophy while offering<br />
simplicity and convenience in terms<br />
of setup and use.<br />
For VPI industries, competing at<br />
this price point has required some<br />
evolution of its existing models. The<br />
original, long-running Scout turntable<br />
has evolved into the Scout 2, but has<br />
seen commensurate price rises taking<br />
it above £2,000. The answer has been<br />
to take the Scout design and refine<br />
aspects of it to become the Scout Jr<br />
– available for £1,600 without<br />
cartridge or £1,650 with an Ortofon<br />
2M Red (HFC 345), as seen here.<br />
In keeping with the VPI philosophy,<br />
the Scout Jr is an unsuspended,<br />
belt-driven design and VPI has been<br />
able to keep a number of Scoutspecific<br />
design attributes. The Jr has<br />
a separate motor, which sits in a<br />
recess on the left-hand side of the<br />
plinth. This is a 500rpm AC design<br />
chosen for the EU market and it sits<br />
on chunky rubber feet for isolation.<br />
The motor has a full-size IEC mains<br />
input and speed adjustment is made<br />
by changing the belt over two pulleys.<br />
The plinth is non-resonant MDF<br />
coated in the traditional VPI black<br />
crackle finish. It is mounted on four<br />
large metal spiked feet with rubber<br />
tips that lend the Scout Jr a degree of<br />
isolation. The plinth contains an oil<br />
bath bearing and a steel shaft with<br />
Jacobs taper onto which the platter<br />
sits. This bearing comes supplied<br />
pre-assembled and lubricated so it is<br />
DETAILS<br />
PRODUCT<br />
VPI Scout Jr<br />
ORIGIN<br />
USA/Denmark<br />
(cartridge)<br />
TYPE<br />
Belt-drive turntable<br />
WEIGHT<br />
11kg<br />
DIMENSIONS<br />
(WxHxD)<br />
500 x 180 x 380mm<br />
FEATURES<br />
● 33 & 45rpm<br />
● Machined<br />
aluminium platter<br />
● Ortofon 2M Red<br />
cartridge<br />
● 9in vertical yoketype<br />
tonearm<br />
DISTRIBUTOR<br />
Renaissance Audio<br />
TELEPHONE<br />
0131 5553922<br />
WEBSITE<br />
vpiindustries.com;<br />
renaissanceaudio.<br />
co.uk<br />
a simple matter of dropping the<br />
platter onto the spindle when you<br />
unpack the deck. The platter itself is<br />
a 1in-thick piece of machined 6061<br />
aluminium that comes with a rubber<br />
anti-slip mat.<br />
Where the Jr differs most<br />
significantly from the more expensive<br />
Scout model is the tonearm. By<br />
preference, VPI tends towards<br />
unipivot-style designs that are freely<br />
suspended on a spike-type mount.<br />
These are relatively costly to produce<br />
and can be a little intimidating to less<br />
experienced users. As such, the Jr<br />
makes use of an arm that is captive<br />
in the horizontal axis, but acts as a<br />
unipivot in the vertical to try and give<br />
some of the performance traits of a<br />
true unipivot.<br />
One area where the arm is clearly<br />
a VPI design is the way the wire does<br />
not exit through the pivot axis, but<br />
instead arcs in a loop out the top of<br />
the arm and into a terminal block. By<br />
applying a twist to this cable, the<br />
force it applies back onto the arm acts<br />
as an anti-skate mechanism. This is<br />
resourceful, but not without some<br />
rather testing quirks.<br />
Out of the box, the arm is rather stiff<br />
and can ‘stick’ at points on a record<br />
until loosened up. The loop anti-skate<br />
is effective in operation, but the<br />
exposed cable is very vulnerable<br />
to outside interference from other<br />
nearby electronics.<br />
These quirks aside, the Scout Jr feels<br />
solid and very well thought<br />
out. The hefty platter and smooth<br />
movement of the arm give the deck<br />
50 MAY 2016