Prime Sig. speaker pop when turning off, squeal at startup?
 

Hello,

When I turn on the motor there is strange noise, maybe a grinding or a squealing? I've tried to reposition the motor to see if that helps but nothing seems to change. Also, when I shut it off the speakers pop. Anyone else have this issue?

These are both somewhat common problems with many VPI tables... the chirping noise upon startup is just the belt slipping until it gets the platter up to speed. It doesn't cause any harm but can be eliminated or minimized by powdering the belt with talcum powder. You simply place the belt in a ziploc bag with some powder in it and shake it around to lightly coat the belt and remove any excess powder, then replace the belt on the table. Problem with this is you'll have some powder fall onto the table for a while when you run it which can then be dusted off. Otherwise you can choose to just live with the chirp and avoid the powdering routine.

The pop when switching the motor on or off is a compatibility problem in some systems, and VPI says it can commonly be prevented by swapping a capacitor in the motor housing as detailed in this VPI video.

Hope that helps, enjoy your Prime Signature!

Awesome, thank you for the info.
I reached out to VPI for the capacitor.
While I have you here, I don't see anywhere in the manual about where to place the motor in relation to the table.

The position of the motor doesn't seem to be critical, but it's explained in the following video just after 2:20 to be 1/4" from the turntable chassis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfJnMtolAWo

As Audio Bill mentioned, a 1/4" is the recommended starting point. If you have a strobe or even a smartphone app to check the speed, you can then move the motor to fine tune as well as moving the belt up and down the pulley.

1/4" from what though?
The top pulley or the bottom pulley or the motor housing itself?

Thanks!

1/4" is the gap between the pulley and the platter.