How to choose an upgraded tonearm.

Mijostyn, I’ll take a look at all the tonearms you mentioned. Will any of them fit the Classic 2 with my having to drill it out do you know?

What difference do you get with sound quailty using various tonearms to include the ones you mention and chose between? I can’t imagine you get the same improvements in sound quality that you might if you invested equal money into a better cartridge or speakers..

After reading an article on this subject, I started thinking the cartridge might have a much larger impact on sound quality than maybe any other component other than the speakers. And that made me think the Ortofon 2M Black was mismatched with the rest of my system. I could be totally wrong, but that thought led me to invest in the Lyra Kleos, a much higher priced and quality cartridge than I might have otherwise considered., Do you think that may be true or is that way off?

The video was interesting and informative, By the way, since my carpentry skills outshine my audio ones, notice the Stanley hammer the video’s host was using to pound on the turntable was definitely low end and not up to his demo. Any decent Estwing hammer would have made the needle fly out of the record’s tracks in a hot flash..

Thanks again for your help. Can’t wait for the Kleos to arrive in about three months or so.

Mike

You possibly could feel "set" for a good while until you feel comfortable making another considerable investment in a new table/arm. 

It will unquestionably be a big sonic upgrade on the stock arm.

The VPI long haulers have used Lyra's pre 3d/gimbal with no complaints.

You might want to shoot an email/call VPI about what the options are with doing an aftermarket arm for the Classic. Getting insight from them on what's involved will help you decide new arm  get a new rig.

Don't forget to fully exploit the capabilities of the Kleos, a "proper" outboard phono stage is something to consider.

I definitely wouldn’t bolt another brand arm to the VPI Classic table. It will affect resale value, too. You’ll be fine with either the dual pivot mod alone, or a new Gimbal 3D arm. A middle option might be a regular 3D+Reference arm plus dual pivot? I’m not entirely familiar with the VPI universe, but I know that I like the 3D+Reference w/ dual pivot in a friend’s rig (on a really nice HR-X there).

When you get to considering the Gimbal Fatboy 3D investment, you also need to consider whether to stick with the VPI or move to something else - that’s your chance to move to another brand arm. You have a lot of decent moves you can take, and you can take even make some of the incrementally. That’s probably why you’re suffering analysis paralysis! Try to step back a minute and have fun again :)

I found out the hard way that the choice of table sometimes dictates the choice of arm. In my case, the Linn LP12 restricts one to a very limited choice of arm. ( This is by far the most annoying thing about Linn ownership). Unfortunately, the same thing goes for the OP’s table...very limiting when it comes to arm choice.

If I owned a VPI Classic model, I would look to the best VPI tonearm available, ( the FatBoy?) and call it a day..unless willing to chuck the VPI and go with another table altogether.

BTW, I am actually a strong believer in the Linn hierarchy...which states that the best SQ comes from the following order of importance..1) Table ( and its subset of components)  2) Arm and lastly 3) Cartridge. 

Tablejockey- what are you referring to with "Lyra’s pre 3d/gimbal"? I tried googling that but came up empty. There’s no 3D gimbal on the VPI or Lyra site I could find. I would like to look it up since you mention it. That’s a good idea to call VPI .about other aftermarket tonearms that may work on their tables. I tried them a couple days ago but no one was around to talk to.

Mulveling, I do need to learn about tonearms first, as I really know little to nothing about them. It might be hard to believe, and my wife never could, how much I enjoy engaging in the analysis part of any search or project, When I haven’t the disposable cash to make a new purchase it’s the perfect time for that too.

I looked up the Gimbal Fatboy you mentioned That;s anoher one in the $4000 plus range. There must be some good gimbal arm for half that which might fit the VPI Classic 2, maybe not.

I will be sticking with the VPI Classic 2 as I’ve other things I’d like to be doing other than fiddling around with continued and expensive audio upgrades,. Heck, I kept my B&O Beogram 4002 turntable for forty years and was perfectly happy with it until kept breaking down So I figure to keep the VPI table until I’m at least age 107 then do another turntable upgrade. By the same token If I do drill some holes in the Classic 2’s base, it’ll be my heirs who take a loss on that, so no worries there.

Mike