I have to honestly say his was the table that made me stop my upgrade-itis. Coupled with a Dynavector 20x (h) and a decent phono amp, it's pure music to my ears! I've been through roughly 15 tables over the years. I waited and waited to this exact table, with JMW-9 Memorial arm, say it for a silly price and grabbed it. I have it on an isolation stand. It does take patience in the setup, but no superman skills to set it up. Make sure you find a good cartridge as a match, if you don't you won't get the full sound. Once setup it does 1 thing as good as any table I have ever heard, it plays the music in the the grooves of a record! Sweet open pure analog sound. I find myself wearing the notes like a nice warm blanket, it envelops you. When I compare it to my transport and dac, it's just no comparison, the Scout wins hands down. I'm not too sure what planet the 2 odd reviews were from, but if your from the earth, this is a table that can't be beat for normal people with normal income.

I have to honestly say his was the table that made me stop my upgrade-itis. Coupled with a Dynavector 20x (h) and a decent phono amp, it's pure music to my ears! I've been through roughly 15 tables over the years. I waited and waited to this exact table, with JMW-9 Memorial arm, say it for a silly price and grabbed it. I have it on an isolation stand. It does take patience in the setup, but no superman skills to set it up. Make sure you find a good cartridge as a match, if you don't you won't get the full sound. Once setup it does 1 thing as good as any table I have ever heard, it plays the music in the the grooves of a record! Sweet open pure analog sound. Go find some thrift shop lp's, clean them up and play them. I find myself wearing the notes like a nice warm blanket, it envelops you. When I compare it to my transport and dac, it's just no comparison, the Scout wins hands down. I'm not too sure what planet the 2 odd reviews were from, but if your from the earth, this is a table that can't be beat for normal people with normal income.

I picked up this turntable with the signature arm as a demo and saved a lot of money. I put an old audio technical 154 p-mount with adapter on the arm. Amazing performance. Clearly the best reviewed turntable on earth for the price, regardless of what the two odd-balls here say. Performance is a no-brainer when properly set up so I wont beat that horse here. But really what surprised me was the amazing customer service. Like I say I bought "demo" and saved some money. But there was a little platter wiggle on the bearing. So I sent an email and they instructed me to send it back for a replacement. The platter and bearing for a matched set. No request for receipts, no mention of warrantee, just send it in. I then requested a belt, and they threw that in for free. So I bought the VPI/dynavector cartridge because I knew these guys were the best. I was a little worried on my first "new" hifi purchase. I now know I have one of the best turntables ever made (in america no less!!) with amazing customer service. I am completely satisfied, on multiple levels.

I have no idea what the previous two reviewers are talking about. This turntable is silly good for the money. I've tried music hall, rega, and clearaudio without anywhere near this performance. I will admit, the design of the tonearm is disturbing at first (the arm has a tapered cup that mates with a needle like point to allow for its movement), but once you hear the music; all is forgiven. Great imaging, dynamic contrasts, and texture to the music. The sound stage is huge. The most admirable quality of this set-up is the ability to extract subtle nuances of the music (low noise floor) without drawing attention to the fact that it is extracting all the info. In my experience there are 3 different types of equipment design styles. Those engineered to show off the details (I call this hi-fi type). Every little detail is too precisely displayed with the unfortunate effect of drawing attention to this ability. Type #2 is the nothing but the truth type that doesn't offend in any way. This type doesn't add warmth and doesn't add show, but does a good job of passing along a signal to the listener. Type #3 is the warm and textured type. This type looks to engage rather than impress (type 1). I classify the scout as a type #3. The highs are all there, the bass is properly weighted, and the music flows. This turntable is not for hi-fi people. It has a beautiful blend of musicality and detail. Something that isn't often found in any audio equipment. If this is something you look for in a piece of equipment, then this one is a keeper for sure. Find your own....mine's not going anywhere!

I've limped into the audio world one piece of equipment at a time, and for those of you on a limited budget, this might be one piece of gear that's worth taking the financial hit for. Having worked for a high end speaker company for a couple of years, I've had the privilege of sitting in front of some seriously over the top systems- hundred thousand dollar speakers, seventy thousand dollar amps etc. The scout may not be in this category, but it does give you a taste of the good life. It's easy to over think the set up, but once you get used to it, pleasant sounds happen quickly. Cartridge choice matters with this tonearm, and after sticking a wad of clay on top of my Grado reference and watching it wobble through the grooves for half a year, I've really come to appreciate how the Sumiko Blackbird behaves. Better bass, more resolution and a better match weight-wise.
Sticking this TT on top of regular furniture isn't a great idea, since it has little in terms of damping, but if you are able to effectively isolate it, the bass, sound staging and focus really comes together. Compared to my last table, a Music Hall, this thing is definitely on a different level. If you play clean records, have the table level and free from vibrations, and take the time to match the right cartridge with this thing, you should have the tools for making some nice music.

Looks attraction..

Awful TT in every way + overpriced!

Money for nothing! !!!!
Miserable sibilant sound from any type of cartridges with
absolutely unstable unbalanced tonearm.
Six months tormental with plenty cartridges - no result...
It is astonishing how a Stereophile guys put this TT to Recommended components "Class B" ???!!!! or they just have no concsience...
Technics SL-1200 mk 2 MUST BE in stead of Scout!!!
Around $2000 list price and they can't even drop to the TT box cheap Shure scale.
Happy huntinf to VPI for next goof!

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A lot from 1974

Good marketing from VPI

Everything

Tried various cartridges with this turntable but in the end none of them was satisfying. Why? because this turntable is not making music at all due to its construction.Very dissapointing

I dont have that much experience..my previous TT was a Thorens TD-165 with a Grado Prestige Blue, but I have heard many tables in shops and friends. This table just sounds natural..It seems to give me all the info there is to be had...The cart I ordered it with is the Dynavector DV-20X which is a great match. Cables to Berning TF-10 tube pre is Final Labs Speed 0202.

none

Easy setup, materials and build quality is great.

The VPI scout has a massive platter and to put it simply there is no getting past that, it is a necessity. It's mad of solid steel and aluminum ( not in inch of plastic). The feet are adjustable. Why this isn't an option in all turntables is beyond me. It's heavy, again very important. It's beautiful. It's reliable, once you set something it stays set. It's affordable (for now). And it rocks!

The tonearm is great but it's not for the faint of heart ( it literally balances on the head of a pin!) You may have heard that VPI has no anti-skate. Well I'm hear to tell you that you don't need it my Scout can track anything that isn't blantly damaged.

I'm surprised there aren't more reviews of this turntable because this thing is the real deal. At this price level there is nothing better. I've been trying to put together a good analog front end for and I've been pretty unhappy until now. This thing gives me everything I was getting before, bass,depth,slam and energy without all the headeaches I had in the past. Unless you plan on spending $5000 or more this is as good as it gets.

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Iv'e used Sota. They suck. Stay away. I've used Music Hall. Yhis is not a high end turtable. It's cheap as hell but don't expect a lot. And lastly I've used Rega 25. This is not an opinion it's a fact

Excellent soundstage, bass, black background, easy to use, looks good!

Anti-skate is okay but not great. Need to make sure you mute your preamp before motor on/off or you experience a loud pop - might damange your speakers if gain is set high.

I planned to buy a VPI Aries w/JMW10.5 arm until I saw this. There's no question the Scout is a much better value, and competes with tables/arms costing much more. Unless you have 1000's of LP may be tough to justify spending more. Associated Equipment: Benz Glider (planning to upgrade to Helikon) ARC LS15 & PH3 Krell FPB300 Wadia 860 Magnum Dynalab FT-11 ProAc Response 5 Monster Power HTS5100 MIT, Harmonic Technology, Synergistic Research, Audioquest cables

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Replaced an AR ES-1 w/Grace G707. Huge improvement, made me decide to spend the bucks on MFSL, DCC etc.