VPI Classic vs Clear Audio Wood

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.

I get a sense of what you mean by “sparkle”. I get that with vintage Fidelity Research arms paired with Koetsu/Shelter cartridges. I’m realizing now I didn’t get that with modern/tech arms like the Graham Phantom and Clearaudio Universal - very smooth and refined, but not as much "sparkle".

I think the cart/arm pairing is going to have a much higher impact on this than the table itself. But you do need a good foundation for the arm. And the Ortofon 2M Red is in no way adequate if you’re looking for analog magic, no matter what arm.