VPI Classic vs Clear Audio Wood

Hi MP

I owned a Classic 1 with Zephyr Mk 1. I would describe the sound as very clean, quite dynamic, with good pitch. I would not describe it as big on tone color. Quite a different set of sonic priorities than the Leben — not that one is “wrong” and the other is “right”, just that I think they would be odd stable mates. In that price range, I’d take a look at WTL or the Nottingham-type tables, if one wanted a companion for the Leben. I haven’t heard enough of the Clearaudios to offer an opinion in this case. 

Happy hunting,
Ping

Funny you should mention the Nottingham tables; I will be auditioning an Analogue Works One today; sounds like it might be a nice match.

I want to try clarify what I meany by my lack of sparkle comment.
Maybe it is because I run a Decca London and Garrard combination and I like the music to really come at me as if I am there. When that doesn’t happen, it’s got no sparkle!
I have heard the Scout with an Ortofon 2M Red and it was, to my ears, somewhat grey sounding with essential detail pushed back.
I’ve heard a Classic 3 and it was good but, again, had a slight dulling that veiled the ’live in the room’ quality.
I have heard the Prime (anniversary 30?) with a Soundsmith Strain Gauge and it was good. However, while it had plenty of detail, the performer did not come to life for me.
I have heard the new 40th Anniversary and it too is a fine machine. Maybe a little polite.
On reflection, you have to hear what you buy for yourself. 

Sparkle is not a quality of live, acoustic, unamplified music if you like sparkle in your music reproduction system then you are enjoying electronics, distortion, and unaccurate sound which is fine but it is not high fidelity reproduction.

I may have inadvertently created an erroneous descriptor by using this word.
No, it’s not a brightness caused by odd order harmonic distortion or tilted frequency response, it is a palpable sense of being present at an event using playback cues like space, immediacy, transparancy, color, timbre and timing. If these qualities are not there in good proportion, the sparkle is absent.