Show Reports

We continue diving headlong into December with Part 8 of my Capital Audiofest 2024 show report. Let’s get right back into it. . .

VPI
VPI turntables were shown in active demos in a handful of rooms at CAF 2024 including the Adams Room, where the company introduced a couple of their new Forever Series Model One turntables — one with a Goldy cartridge ($1,300), the other with a Shyla cartridge ($2,000). Those cartridges are named after VPI CEO Mat Weisfeld’s two young daughters who were also present at the show, and are seen flanking him below.

Weisfeld shared a few details about the VPI Forever Series turntables with me. For one thing, Forever tables are designed to be versatile, serviceable, and upgradeable via their modular construction. More specifically, the Model One has a 3-point floating suspension system to provide isolation of the platter, tonearm, and 300rpm motor. The Model One’s chassis also houses an aluminum subchassis — upon which the top chassis sits — with the base on right and three screws mounting it to the top plate. The chassis can also be level-adjusted with the HW-40 isolation feet that are receiving a name change, hereafter to be called Forever Feet.

The Model One turntable is available with or without VPI’s new gimbaled S-type tonearm, the S-Tonearm Module. Its armboard is removable — in a nod to earlier VPI turntable designs — and can be used with other tonearms from various makers such as Jelco, Graham Engineering, Tri-Planar, etc.

The new tonearm represents a departure from the company’s usual standard, straight unipivot arms. It arm wand is machined from a single piece of aluminum. Weisfeld told me that this arm, which retails à la carte for $2,000, is also compatible with earlier VPI turntable models, including the HW-19 turntable.

The VPI Forever Model One’s standard pricing — which includes the new S-type tonearm, platter, motor, and hinged dust cover — is $5,250. The new table is slated to start shipping mid-to-end-of December or in January 2025 at the latest, Weisfeld confirmed.

VPI has ungraded their warranty from 5 years to 10 years with the Forever Series. “This indicates how much confidence I have in my brand, our company, the people in it, my daughters, the future, and everything,” Weisfeld said of the new warranty. (VPI is based in New Jersey, and is celebrating 45 years in business.)

Finally, the VPI Model One tables each sat on wood isolation bases upon equipment racks that VPI also made for their own use (and that aren’t made for sale). Unfortunately, due to some tricky timing, I didn’t get to listen to this system enough to comment on the sound. Next time!

Author bio: Julie Mullins, a lifelong music lover and audiophile by osmosis who grew up listening to her father’s hi-fi gear, is also a contributing editor and reviewer on our sister site, Stereophile, for whom she also writes the monthly Re-Tales column. A former fulltime staffer at Cincinnati’s long-running alt-weekly CityBeat, she hosts a weekly radio show on WAIF called On the Pulse.

For more of our CAF 2024 coverage, go to Part 1 of Julie’s show report here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, and also see Ken Micallef’s turntable video extravaganza here.