VPI turntables

Asking for VPI advice can go sideways pretty quick.

You’re either gonna get those who will suggest something completely outside of your question, or a reply reminding you how the VPI design is flawed and then a recommendation for a design that is "better." That may or may not come with an explanation as to why.

Example set with 1st reply.

I would have set the tone by requesting replies by existing VPI users that went up the VPI food chain.

I use a 10 year old Classic. I agree with many-VPI arms (uni or gimbal) are far from SOTA, but they don’t detract from an enjoyable listening experience, when setup properly.

Unless you’re prepared to drop some serious cash and you like VPI, I’d consider used-as they seem to drop value significantly. MSRP on VPI is overpriced. Find a Phoenix Roadrunner or Sota speed controller, and you’ll have a nice rig for not too much.

VPI Classic 3 Rosewood 3D Gimbal & TTW Audio TTWeights Black Onyx For Sale - US Audio Mart

Going up the SS line is a definite upgrade- I wouldn’t go past the MIMC with your table.

The table listed is worthy of going further up the SS line-IMHO.

Edit- link changed to seller listing

I'm looking at these models as they are currently on sale in the $3500 range I'm also willing to look at used tables.

Yes, you should get a significant improvement. I would definitely upgrade the table. I owned an Aries for many years. Moving up a couple levels in the table would be my first step… like the super scout. This gives you a more stable quieter base to make other changes. You have a pretty good cartridge.

The advantage of moving up the line with VPI is you like the sound… moving higher will improve all aspects of the sound you like. While there are lots of alternatives out there they are going to have a different character. So, if you like what you have and want to move up then your safest bet is to more up VPI with the same basic technology as far as you can. Getting in the $ 3 - $5 K range table gets you a substantial platform. Then you can look at cartridges later when you want.

You will get a lot of recommendations of other brands that are “much better”. They also may have a different character… which to you may find to be great or disconcerting. If you are inclined to investigate these other recommendations then critically read all the reviews of yours, the VPI you are thinking about buying and the others proposed. Successfully changing brands will require a lot of work to with low risk. There is nothing worse to make a major purchase and have several aspects of the sound get better and several things you liked get worse.

I moved from VPI to Linn LP 12… but from basically a $6K table (table, arm, and cartridge) to a $25K table. So, huge difference, but to maintain some of the characteristics I loved from the VPI required careful cartridge matching and a Silent Running Audio isolation platform ($3.5K). I could not be happier, but the transition was a lot of work. But I knowingly got into the project expecting lots of research (six months), and carefull choices and tweaking.

The bulk of your performance gain will be with the 3-D arm. I replaced the JMW-9 with the 10.5 inch 3-D and things got much cleaner and more organized. Then moved that arm to a Prime chassis and saw less improvement than I anticipated.

The new Prime 21 is at least $5500.00. When I bought my Prime with the unipivot arm ( worst tonearm ever) it was $4000.00 without cartridge. I went to the new Technics SL1200G for four thousand. I love it. I think you saw it in my system the last time you came up. If you do get a Prime, I would go with their newer gimbaled arm, it should be a lot less fussy.