I bought a Classic when it first came out and then traded it in for a Prime when it first came out. I believe VPI belt-drive decks are good but not great. The plinths are not a marvel of sophistication. VPI’s footers are very mediocre. The VPI unipivot design with the wire coming up out of the “bearing” housing is simply not wise.The arm is very prone to canting due to changing tension from the wire-even if you don’t twist the wire to obtain anti-skate. The rotating ring to adjust azimuth is terrible-coarse and not user-friendly. Most of the top cartridges just don’t sing with the VPI unipivot design. They can sound nice, but not at the true potential of the cartidge-I am talking the $1500 and up choices. When you have the pleasure of using a top tonearm you see the crude nature of VPI unipivots. The adjustments are coarse and the small allen lockscrews are prone to stripping. I discovered the Reed 3P and it’s in a whole different world of ease of adjustment and joy to use. At a price, but life is short. I don’t mean to bash VPI-again they are good but not great. The sound character tends toward smooth but glossed over. You will never hear glorious soundstaging, dynamic punch, or detail retrieval with an under $5000 VPI unipivot deck imho.
How do you like your VPI -Classic, Scout, Scoutmaster, Prime, TNT, ?
I’ve had J.A. Michell, and others; including SME V tone arms. Wanting to get into VPI and looking at Classic series, Scout, Scoutmaster, TNT, Prime tables and don’t know much about tone arm’s they use or which is best, better, etc? What to avoid...? What to gravitate to? I’m fairly good at dealing with mechanical set up. Have a nice system and pre right now. Pass Labs -XA-25, XP-22, XP-15, Wilson Audio Sophia II’s