VPI Report

vinyl1

Super Member
Yesterday, nearly 100 audio enthusiasts from the New Jersey Audio Society and the Audiophile Society of New York met a Harry Weisfeld's house in New Jersey.

This was the first time I ever ate a slice of pizza at a kitchen table with three $10K+ turntables on display in the middle of the table. There were also no fewer than five listening rooms set up.

In the formal part of the meeting, Mat Weisfeld stood on a kitchen chair and gave a presentation on the reasons for the new VPI lineup. As many of you may have heard, VPI is cutting back on the number of models they have, and eliminating the Classic line. Mat's explanation was that he felt customers were confused by the wide variety of models VPI produced, many of them at the same price point. His goal for the company is to rationalize the line, and say that this is the turntable you should be buying if you want to spend X dollars. The standard line now consists of the Scout, $2K, the Prime, $4K, and the Prime Signature, $6K. The reference line consists of the Avenger, $10K, the Avenger Plus, $15K, and the Avenger Reference, $20K. Mat wants to push these standardized models as the core products of his company.

There were five listening rooms. In room 1, they had the Scout, the Prime, and the Prime Signature set up with identical Ortofon cartridges, using big Marantz amps and the big JBL speakers. Harry Weisfeld was our DJ, and he played a wide variety of LPs. As he explained, the cartridges were not properly broken in, but you could definitely hear the differences betweent he tables. The JBLs were not to my taste, but I politely listened to Harry's explanation of why he prefers them. To me, the sound was like a rock concert with very good sound reinforcement equipment. It did sound nice with the Mofi Grateful Dead playing.
 
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Room 2 I don't quite remember. It was some sort of Avenger with British speakers, I believe, but I didn't look too closely. They were playing classical records, but the room was open and it was difficult to listen properly because of all the noise

In the middle of the house, they had room 3, with the Player turntable set up. One of the guests was Jeff Joseph, the speaker manufacturer, who had bought a pair of his smaller speakers and set up a system for casual listening. Unfortunately, the room was completely open and was full of people drinking wine and talking, so conditions were not very good for listening. I had never seen a Player before, and I listened to some LPs through the build-in headphone amp, which allowed me to get some idea of how it sounded. It is good for the money, but I'm not sure how much of a market there is at this price point. Mat had introduced VPI's new employee, who is designing their phono preamp. He was also involved on improving the electronics in the Player, and it is now much better than it was in its former incarnation as the Nomad.

Room 4 was in the back and had a closeable door, allowing serious listening. Some sort of high-end Avenger prototype was in use, with the new dual-pivot tonearm, which is more stable than unipivot. Mat doesn't think it really makes much of a difference, but the customers want it. Mat explained to me how 3D-printing has improved so much, enabling VPI to give the tonearms a much more finished appearance than the earliest models. Sonically, this matters little, but they look more like a very high-quality piece of expensive equipment. The system had KEF Blades driven by Odyssey amps. Mat was the DJ, and played a wide variety of material. I thought the sound was good, although they were records I was unfamiliar with.

Room 5 had the Mark Levinson turntable that VPI had designed and built for Harman. It also had the big Ohm F speakers, driven by a Levinson phono preamp and a Marantz receiver used as a power amp only. Some listeners didn't think there was really enough power to drive the Ohms, but later on I went back and they were playing classical chamber music, with the system sounding really sweet at moderate volumes.

One interesting point was that each of the four major rooms contained a big, professional-quality reel-to-reel tape deck. One was put into action in room 1, and I can see why Harry likes the format. However, there is simply not enough source material available for it to be a practical format like records and turntables, so I don't think you'll be seeing the VPI R-to-R any time soon.

A great time was had by all, and I never saw 8 big pizzas disappear so quickly. Well, it was an audio club. My overall impression is that Mat Weisfeld has revitalized VPI and set it off in a new, more organized direction. The company could very easily have floundered and gone under following Sheila Weisfeld's death, but instead it seems to be in good hands. A big thanks to Harry and Mat for their hospitality!
 
Yesterday, nearly 100 audio enthusiasts from the New Jersey Audio Society and the Audiophile Society of New York met a Harry Weisfeld's house in New Jersey.

This was the first time I ever ate a slice of pizza at a kitchen table with three $10K+ turntables on display in the middle of the table. There were also no fewer than five listening rooms set up.

In the formal part of the meeting, Mat Weisfeld stood on a kitchen chair and gave a presentation on the reasons for the new VPI lineup. As many of you may have heard, VPI is cutting back on the number of models they have, and eliminating the Classic line. Mat's explanation was that he felt customers were confused by the wide variety of models VPI produced, many of them at the same price point. His goal for the company is to rationalize the line, and say that this is the turntable you should be buying if you want to spend X dollars. The standard line now consists of the Scout, $2K, the Prime, $4K, and the Prime Signature, $6K. The reference line consists of the Avenger, $10K, the Avenger Plus, $15K, and the Avenger Reference, $20K. Mat wants to push these standardized models as the core products of his company.

There were five listening rooms. In room 1, they had the Scout, the Prime, and the Prime Signature set up with identical Ortofon cartridges, using big Marantz amps and the big JBL speakers. Harry Weisfeld was our DJ, and he played a wide variety of LPs. As he explained, the cartridges were not properly broken in, but you could definitely hear the differences betweent he tables. The JBLs were not to my taste, but I politely listened to Harry's explanation of why he prefers them. To me, the sound was like a rock concert with very good sound reinforcement equipment. It did sound nice with the Mofi Grateful Dead playing.

These is a correction though: These large JBLs (Project Everest) were driven by 300W/Ch worth McIntosh amplifier. At one point it was driven right to clipping point (do you recall that drums solo?) and I felt that even more power will be helpful.

I also verified that all VPI tonearm (even TOTL model) have the same design flaw - tungsten carbide needle meets STEEL cup - major mismatch in materials causes needle to shave off flakes from steel cup thus constantly changing contact point. I expected at least some models to have sapphire (like in new Rega arm) or better - diamond cup.
 
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These is a correction though: These large JBLs (Project Everest) were driven by 300W/Ch worth McIntosh amplifier. At one point it was driven right to clipping point (do you recall that drums solo?) and I felt that even more power will be helpful.

I also verified that all VPI tonearm (even TOTL model) have the same design flaw - tungsten carbide needle meets STEEL cup - major mismatch in materials causes needle to shave off flakes from steel cup thus constantly changing contact point. I expected at least some models to have sapphire (like in new Rega arm) or better - diamond cup.

Sorry, 'Marantz' was a mental typo. Of course they were Macs, that's Harry's favorite.
 
Very interesting post, enjoyed hearing about this gathering. Wish I had been there. The new direction VPI is heading is more rational and practical in approach. A good path forward for VPI. Interesting that Harry Weisfeld and I are Mac fans.
 
I live nearby and wish I knew about this event.
How did you find out about it?
 
Sorry, 'Marantz' was a mental typo. Of course they were Macs, that's Harry's favorite.

There is one more thing missed from your report - Matt's statement that VPI will start building direct drive motors in house. That was likely the most important announcement made there.
 
Members of NJ and NYC audiophile clubs were invited. You may decide to join http://www.njaudiosociety.com

Yes, it was a club event for members only. I am a member of both the Audiophile Society and the Connecticut Audio Society. These clubs often sponsor joint events, in this case the New Jersey group and the Audiophile Society. Most of the groups in the tristate area also share for-sale offerings and other local announcements.
 
There is one more thing missed from your report - Matt's statement that VPI will start building direct drive motors in house. That was likely the most important announcement made there.

I don't think he said this in his kitchen-chair speech - was it later on in one of the rooms? It was hard to be everywhere and soak in all the information.

On another note, I wonder what's going to happen with the Mark Levinson turntable now that Samsung has bought Harman-Kardon. They only wanted the car stereo division, so the high-end brands face an uncertain future.
 
I don't think he said this in his kitchen-chair speech - was it later on in one of the rooms? It was hard to be everywhere and soak in all the information.

He made that announcement in room with KEF Blade's. First he complained having problem with OEM maker of that motor. From his words VPI only made a handful of DD table units because of it.

There is one more quote from Matt: he believes that $6K for audio component is where real demand from customers stops. Above that price point what people get is audio jewelry.

On another note, I wonder what's going to happen with the Mark Levinson turntable now that Samsung has bought Harman-Kardon. They only wanted the car stereo division, so the high-end brands face an uncertain future.

Sell AKG and JBL. Others can be dissolved and no one will notice.
 
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He made that announcement in room with KEF Blade's. First he complained having problem with OEM maker of that motor. From his words VPI only made a handful of DD table units because of it.

Sell AKG and JBL. Others can be dissolved and no one will notice.

There are a LOT of tables that VPI made only a handful of.

You obviously have never worked for a healthy business that was bought up and shit-canned.
 
You obviously have never worked for a healthy business that was bought up and shit-canned.

Out of all audio brands owned by Harman, only AKG, JBL and maybe Crown have sizable market share - all in pro-audio world. Others are just boutique labels, which do not do much R&D.

ML brand didn't have much recognition since namesake founder was thrown out.
 
Out of all audio brands owned by Harman, only AKG, JBL and maybe Crown have sizable market share - all in pro-audio world. Others are just boutique labels, which do not do much R&D.

ML brand didn't have much recognition since namesake founder was thrown out.

Yes, but I think someone would buy home-audio segments of Mark Levinson and Revel if the price were right. They still have business and an established dealer network. They may only be worth a couple million, but there's no reason not to sell them.

I agree on Infinity, that brand is pretty much dead.
 
I'm curious as to what one would hear when listening to a high end system with a turntable costing from $6,000 to $20,000. How much better is it compared to the systems I'm using listed in my signature? I live in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN. If someone local would be interested in inviting me over to educate me and show me their system I'd appreciate it. PM me if you'd like to get together.
 
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