What direction is VPI headed?

I also agree about Bill, he had a great design but working with him seemed next to impossible.

It's not that difficult really.  You just need an attention span longer than 5 minutes and someone that can understand what they're looking at.  Not loosing the equipment I sent to you for evaluation would have gone a long way as well.

I think what sealed the deal for me was when you couldn't make any decisions so Harry stepped in, requested equipment to evaluate, never got around to it, and after 3 months of yanking my chain told me: "I'm retired now, talk to Mat about it". 

Yeah, and I'm next to impossible.

Actually, you have been... Bill you are rewriting history a bit as usual but that's fine, I'm used to it from you and not going to waste time with a fight.

Speaking of which, I see it is a waste of time for me to hang out on this thread any longer. I hope I answered everyone's questions. The direction is leading us to more focus and quality products that we will still be able to service for everyone 20 years from now.

Mat, I pretty much bled my pancreas of bile upon you (undeservedly) and rather than blast something back, you responded like a true gentleman. A true gentleman you are. In particular, I know many think very highly of the 3D arm and my attack on it as a "plastic gimmick" was a bit much. I do happen to think my 9T sounds 98% as good but that is my subjective opinion in my particular Thorens rig. Thanks for being a nice guy running a great (but imperfect) company. On the topic of B&M retailers, I will not drop his name but I live in Columbus OH so you can probably figure out his identity-it happened to be me who informed him of Sheila's passing which I had just learned from one of the boards-this particular guy was on the verge of tears-such was his fondness for Sheila developed over many years of phone conversations. And yes, you are wise not to engage too much in these forums-they are like zoos run amuck by the inmates, of which I am undoubtedly one of the elephants. 

+1 fsonicsmith.  

I haven't investigated the VPI "dual pivot/stabilizer/outrigger", but Frank Van Alstine developed what he named the Longhorn in the 1980's. It was a thin rod with a weight on each end, which was attached to the cartridge. Frank described it as acting like the pole with which high-wire acrobats balance themselves. He recommended it especially for use with Grado cartridges, for some reason, but to me seemed very apropos for use with unipivot arms, for the obvious reason. It was, as with all things Van Alstine, ridiculously cheap. Perhaps that's why it never caught on with high end snobs ;-).