Features

Analogplanet.com Visits VPI Industries Part 1

Michael Fremer  |  Oct 30, 2013

The editor visited VPI Industries today. The original purpose was to tour the factory and pick up a new VPI Direct Drive turntable for review. However, a minor modification to the turntable not yet accomplished has pushed back the delivery date a week. So we left "empty handed" but the visit was rewarding nonetheless.

Watch Part 1 of analogplanet.com's tour of VPI Industries. Two more parts will be posted tomorrow.

COMMENTS
torturegarden's picture
Submitted by torturegarden on Thu, 2013-10-31 06:43

I love videos like this, thanks for posting. One of my goals in life, when i'm not so poor, is to assemble a made in America Hi-fi system and visit all the factories where the gear is made. I think it would be a fun road trip for a few weeks. 

Stu Morgenstern's picture
Submitted by Stu Morgenstern on Thu, 2013-10-31 13:22

to see manufacturers of such great equipment pay homage to the achievements of the past. As a huge fan of vintage audio, the trip into the VPI vaults was a real thrill.

ravenacustic's picture
Submitted by ravenacustic on Thu, 2013-10-31 07:20

The obsession that keeps on giving.

rdh79730's picture
Submitted by rdh79730 on Thu, 2013-10-31 07:40

I've had my Scout II for a year now and love it.

Hopefully your visit to VPI was more rewarding than mine was to PS Audio.  Yikes!

liuj88's picture
Submitted by liuj88 on Fri, 2013-11-01 01:04

What happened at PS Audio? Would you mind sharing? (You can't just mention that and not provide details!)

rdh79730's picture
Submitted by rdh79730 on Fri, 2013-11-01 09:19

They are down the street from my office.  After the second piece of POS Audio equipment failed, I took it to them to fix.  Wanted to charge $300 to fix an HPC power filter that I only paid $350 for.  Electrical storm didn't kill anything else in my house that was either not protected or protected by a $10 power strip.  It killed the HPC though.  I told them no thanks on the repair and that I'd come to pick it up.  I get there and it takes three people to find out where it's at and then it was still completely disassembled.  They asked if I would like to wait in the listening room and hear some music.  Sure.  After two people tried to get their system going and couldn't, I said don't bother.  Two top level guys couldn't figure out how to turn on their own equipment.  Needless to say, I won't be buying anymore POS Audio equipment.

liuj88's picture
Submitted by liuj88 on Mon, 2013-11-04 11:46

Thanks for sharing. I'm quite surprised, and disappointed, to learn this about PS Audio. If it's any consolation, I went to their web site, and couldn't find the "HPC" power filter, so it may have been discontinued. Did they return your unit disassembled, or re-assembled but still broken?

Their not being able to play music in their own system is baffling, but could very well be easily explicable.

soundman45's picture
Submitted by soundman45 on Thu, 2013-10-31 09:29

There's nothing more salacious looking than a well built high end turntable.

ravenacustic's picture
Submitted by ravenacustic on Thu, 2013-10-31 16:36

I couldn't agree more. Turntables are the precious jewels of the audio industry. Beautiful to see, delightful to touch, and so so sweet sounding.

l5chambre's picture
Submitted by l5chambre on Wed, 2013-11-06 12:13

This is a look of more close to in person. They look kind of silly in mag ads.

But good job, Mikey on checking their claims. Still prefer Music Hall, though.

detroitvinylrob's picture
Submitted by detroitvinylrob on Sun, 2013-11-17 08:35

I'm so delighted to see your coverage Mikey on VPI. Nicely done. Harry, his family, and co-workers are just amazingly nice people. It's great to see how they work and play, and to see their love for the gear.

My own personal connection with Harry came when I was looking for a pair of Coincident Total Eclipse speakers that would play nice with a variety of valve amps and I came across an auction that had several low-ballers on it, and the speakers were already at a very fair price and where offered as EX condition, so duh, I hit the BUY NOW!

I wrote the seller and explained that the only way I would pay and take delivery on the auction, was if we could speak and make arrangements for the shipping (and quite frankly, I needed to get a feel for the guy to see if he was square business as the shipping would be too much to return on a bad deal).

Well, the seller said sure, and gave me his phone number and said to ask for Harry as it was his place of business and he spent a lot of time there. As these things happen, I called. His dear wife Sheila answered and asked me what was my business with Harry? as he was a very busy man. Well, she found him and after he and I had talked for nearly 45 minutes non stop about records that we loved,  different old tube amps that we were crazy about, the fellow asked me, so... what kind of turntable did I own?  I responded there were several, but it was a short list, a Sondek Lp12 with Ittok Mk.II arm was my mainstay. He responded that that was a nice TT and he especially admired Linn's continuous upgrade platform, both for the customer and the business. Then he ask, if I had any experience with and what I thought about VPI turntables? I responded that I had not heard a single one that I didn't enjoy (which was the truth).

At that point, I was starting to figuring it out and ask, so you're name is Harry, Harry who? And he somewhat reluctantly and with a mild mannered replied, Weisfeld. I laughed hard, it was ironic and perfectly natural that we had spent so much time talking about the passion and had no idea who we were talking to, other than another music and Hifi lover. I responded what a delightful surprise this was (as anyone paying attention in this hobby has knowledge of VPI and Harry) and where do I send a check and could we arrange to get me into a (long needed) 16.5 vacuum machine? We worked that out also.

To my view, there isn't a better guy in the business, and what a music and gear lover... the passion runs deep.

Robert Anthony's picture
Submitted by Robert Anthony on Mon, 2015-02-02 13:51

This video does not play --- error code say's - This video is private?

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