I wanted to give a shout out to brother slaw... he mentioned that he had made a tweak to his VPI dual pivot and let me try it out. I recently installed the dual pivot mod on my VPI Classic 2 (with Classic 3 tonearm) and one of the things I read about it is that the plate can get wear marks over time.
Steve's tweak is to put a piece of thin PEEK plastic on the pivot plate. He offered to let me try and my only thought was that it would be good for the plate. I wasn't expecting any difference in sound quality, but I noticed a couple of things right away that were completely unexpected. Things seemed a little more "airy" and it seemed like the background got a little "blacker". Definitely worth a try if you have the dual pivot on your VPI.
By the way, I'm happy that I did the dual pivot mod. I like the stability it provides and think it improves sound and it makes setting your cartridge up easier IMO.