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Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: VPI Industries Prime Turntables by bill_stevenson@bellsouth.net

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REVIEW: VPI Industries Prime Turntables

173.221.101.242


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Model: Prime
Category: Turntables
Suggested Retail Price: $3,800.00
Description: All the right pieces
Manufacturer URL: VPI Industries

Review by bill_stevenson@bellsouth.net on November 20, 2015 at 12:56:50
IP Address: 173.221.101.242
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for the Prime


This is the first product that is fully the work of Matt Weisfeld, the son of founder Harry Weisfeld. VPI is located in New Jersey and was founded in 1978. From the beginning the company has been known as innovative, not afraid to try new things, and at the same time provide solid products that last and sound good. Owners have also been afforded the option to upgrade as new innovations resulted in better sound. The designs are simple and for those who value such things, they are elegant and tend to build upon the strengths of other models in the lineup. The Prime is a good example of how progress occurs at VPI. The Prime has all of the elements one would expect of a high end turntable, except the price. The plinth design comes from the TNT (also found in the Scout), the platter and bearing come from the Classic, the separate stand alone 300 rpm motor design also derives from the TNT. The plinth is supported with a four point plastic/cone/rubber isolation system similar to the Classic and others (and to Stillpoints for that matter). Perhaps the most innovative component on the Prime is the 3D tonearm. Harry W. has been working with this basic unipivot design for years. In this iteration the arm is a one piece, carbon epoxy composite instead of metal. You can buy one of these 3D tonearms for about $2,000.00, further underscoring the value that this package represents. I doubt there is a better tonearm on the market at any price. The whole package put together is solid, the machined aluminum platter alone weighs almost 40 pounds. I measured the speed using a Roadrunner tachometer and found it to be 33.595-33.605, and after about 20 minutes of motor warm-up, the speed stability is rock steady. The drive motor position relative to the separate plinth does affect platter speed slightly, as it does on all belt drive turntables using detached motors.

Setup is very straight forward and VPI has an excellent video that takes the new owner through the steps in about 15 minutes. Plan on 1-2 hours for your first attempt, though. Setting up the tonearm was not particularly easy for me for a number of reasons. For one thing I am very fussy, for another my 67 year old self is fitted with shakey hands, and finally, the setup requires patience and perseverance to achieve the kind of results that this arm is capable of delivering. Two aftermarket products are strongly recommended to aid setup. The Soundsmith Counter Intuitive makes setting VTF and azimuth much easier, it facilitates making minor changes, and achieves repeatable settings. An arc type protractor, which provides two null point, of your choice provides a more accurate and better sounding cartridge. There are several choices including free ones you can find if you look. I own two: The Best Protractor by MintLP and the Accu-Trak. One of the little frustrations that I had with set up is that the nominal spec for tonearm pivot point to spindle on the Prime is 258 mm, but mine for some reason was actually 261.5 mm. This is a minor difficulty, but Matt Weisfeld actually offered to replace my turntable over it. I declined the offer, but share the story as this is illustrative of the extraordinary service that VPI is justly famous for. In any event, not everyone is going to be as anal as I am about accurate tracking, but everyone should take the single point paper protractor that is supplied with their new Prime and put it out with the trash.

So how does the Prime sound? For this section I mounted an Ortofon Cadenza Black cartridge. My phono stage is a Conrad-Johnson TEA2MAX. This combination is neutral, precise, with no obvious short comings. The Prime sounds exactly like you would expect a very high end, world class turntable to sound. The bass is profoundly deep and well defined. Transient response is very fast and well defined. On well recorded piano, the vibration of the sounding board is tangible, not just the note, but the feel of the instrument, as though you could reach out and touch it is enough to curl your toes. The midrange is magic, breath tones are so close and clear you might sniff to make sure the singer brushed her teeth. Intimate, fast, and clear. Highs have a shimmer to them that is absolutely stunning. I have a bell tree identical to the one used by the late, great Connie Kay of Modern Jazz Quartet fame. These bells have very complex, high frequency overtones. Think of a set of a dozen or more triangles of different sizes set up adjacent to each other so that the percussionist could sweep across the group with her striker to create a mass of high pitched sound. Anyway, the turntable that can create a credible facsimile of these bell trees is a rare and amazing thing. I present to you the Prime: One of the rare few that can do this well. It might not be the best turntable on the market, but with careful set up it it takes a lot to beat it.


Product Weakness: The arm is difficult to adjust, solve this with a Soundsmith CI<br>Runs a wee bit fast, not a real problem for most listeners
Product Strengths: Solid construction should result in long term reliability<br>Great sound


Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Conrad-Johnson ARTsa
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Conrad-Johnson ET5
Sources (CDP/Turntable): VPI Prime; Technics SL1200 KAB
Speakers: Sony SS-AR2
Cables/Interconnects: Blue Jeans
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Jazz, Classical
Room Size (LxWxH): 30 x 16 x 12
Room Comments/Treatments: none
Time Period/Length of Audition: 200 hours plus
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Not used for this reveiw
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: VPI Industries Prime Turntables - bill_stevenson@bellsouth.net 12:56:50 11/20/15 ( 64)