VPI Classic - Now you have one......

I've had mime now for about 4 months and am quite pleased. I must state that this is my first analog rig..so I have little to compare to. My "listening session" frinds have much much more accomplised rigs than myself...so that comparison is a bit unfair..although much closer than I expected. Its been a rough 4 months letting cart, wires, cables, phono stage burn in. I'm running my Classic with the standard arm (no VTA..although I am interested in this upgrade at a later date) a Benz ACE S HO, Furutech AG-12 cable, and built in phono stage of a McIntosh MA6900. Now that things have had time to burn in and settle a bit I'm in the process of ordering a mintLP alignment tool....to realign everything. In regards to listening, I think that I'm most impressed with the completeness of the sound. On one hand its robust and full and on the other its quite resolving....lots and lots of detail without being etched or forced. PRAT...out of this world. And as others have mentioned, the bass is very good...both full and articulate. I had the opportunity to add the HRX center wt. and periphery ring for a short period.....subtle difference...I'll add at a later date. For now, I'm very pleased with my "new Classic".

Thanks, John

John...I am considering the Classic with A Benz Micro Glider S Lo output cart for my first ever vinyl set up. What digital do you have in your system? And givent hat this is your first vinyl set up, how would you compare the sound of the Classic to your digital set up? Pros and cons vs. digital? Thx

Cmalak,

I have a McIntosh MCD201 SACD Player, Kimber Kable Silver Streak IC, Black Sand Violet Z1 pc, Finite Element isolation. All in all, about $200 difference b/t my analog and digital front end. So, a fair comparison. I find that my rig has become very recording dependent (both digital and analog)That said, they are very close..(I'm not going to use all of the audiophile descriptives)give a little here take a little there. But the ringer is this (as my wife summed up) "The CD player sounds great, but it sounds as if the music is filtered through a machine and the turntable sounds more real more alive."

Thanks,
John

Thx John. Appreciate the response.

I have been quite happy with mine for the last several months, using Dyna XV-1s, ASR Mini Basis, Ortofon SUP and optional ring clamp. My biggest complaint I think is that in my system (ASR Basis Exclusive II, Usher BE20, Synergistic Research Tesla IC/speakers and quite a few PCs), the bass was deep, powerful but a bit only mellow/polite side. It is great on jazz,vocal but less fun on pop and large scale orchestral work. I don't think it was my system as my old turntable (Blue Note Piccolo) certainly was more fun, more pace although it could not match the VPI in most other aspect. Luckily, my dealer just replaced my VPI wire with Valhalla wire it it made a significant difference. Now the turntable has much better speed and rhythmic control and pace. Although Valhalla wire sounded a tad leaner right now on vocal but with better clarity. Let see if that will improve after breaking in a bit more.
I definitely think Valhalla wire is well worth the money. My dealer ordered Valhalla wire for JWM 12.5 for me so there is a little extra wire left to rewire the box as well.