Show Reports

Welcome to Part 7 of my Florida International Audio Expo 2025 show report. This time, I’m in the Palm Room to check out the VPI Avenger Statement turntable, VAC Statement Phono preamp, Acora Acoustics’ VRC stone speakers, and more.

VPI / VAC
VPI’s President Mat Weisfeld enjoys putting on a show, and he always makes it fun. At FLAX 2025, one of a few rooms that displayed a VPI turntable was happening — and I do mean, happening — in the Palm Room, one of the show’s larger exhibit spaces with a couple of systems displayed. The main analog source for this high-end exhibit was a VPI Avenger Statement turntable, a direct-drive model, in a standout crimson color. (The AP faithful probably know that VPI also manufactures belt-driven tables along with rim-drive tables.)

Mounted on an armboard — onto VPI’s Fatboy VTA base — was a VPI Fatboy Gimbal 12-3D tonearm ended with a Hana Umami Red MC cartridge. Users can mount up to three tonearms of their choice. Essentially, any arm type and/or length will work — VPI has tried up to 14in arms — and they needn’t be VPI models. Weisfeld noted that someone reportedly had even managed to install a linear-tracking tonearm in a highly customized setup. “I don’t know how they did it, but why not?” he quipped.

A second-generation business begun by Mat’s father, Harry Weisfeld, VPI brings family to work, occasionally including Mat’s young daughters for whom two of VPI’s cartridges are named, Shyla and Goldy. Continuing the family-related theme, the Avenger table deploys VPI’s “latest and greatest” direct-drive technology that incorporates (at least in part) Weisfeld’s brother-in-law’s engineering prowess — “the big secret weapon,” Weisfeld said, cryptically. “We’ve had world-class engineers, and he’s learned from all of them. [. . .] The design work on the inside has all been clean and efficient.”

The coding in the self-correcting software that maintains speed accuracy is said to increase efficiency. One detail Weisfeld mentioned was that the reader never “sees” a dead spot while those internal parts are going around. In other words, the rotor stays locked in for speed consistency. Even if you try to stop the platter while it’s rotating — as Weisfeld demonstrated — you can feel some decent resistance. “I could touch the platter, and still it’s going to self-correct and hold the speed,” he noted. Presumably, this is also aided by that direct-drive torque. In this VPI Avenger table, the motor is isolated on the bottom end of the plinth from the machined bearing on top. The room’s table setup also used VPI’s periphery ring and center clamp to help ensure records stay flat for smoother playback.

[Editor's note, 03.12.2025: Weisfeld has a few additional tech clarifications he would like to add to this story, and we will update this post as soon as we have them in hand.]

Meanwhile, Kevin Hayes, founder and designer of Florida-based Valve Amplification Company (VAC), mentioned that he had shipped more than 4,000lb of electronics to the show in total. Hayes was on hand in this same demo room to discuss his Statement series high-end tubed amplification, including the introduction of the new flagship VAC Statement 455 iQ amp with outboard power supplies.

Connected to the VPI Avenger Statement table was another statement product, VAC’s Statement Phono preamp, in the Obsidian edition; next in the chain came VAC’s Statement Line preamp. A pair of the new VAC Statement 455 iQ monoblock amps drove Acora Acoustics’ VRC stone speakers in a dramatic Sunset Fire pattern. Digital source gear included an Aurender N305A streamer and an Abendrot Colt DAC. Cardas Cables supplied the system’s cabling throughout.

Want to see a lot of the abovementioned gear in action at FLAX? Check out the YouTube clip below, which features an interview I did for our sister site, Stereophile, with VAC’s Hayes.

You can also go here on AP and scroll down to the embedded YouTube clip there to see my esteemed colleague, chief AP product reviewer Ken Micallef, talking with VPI’s Weisfeld about the Avenger turntable in the segment that appears during the final minute-and-a-half of that clip.

Meanwhile, back here — Part 8 is soon enough on its way!

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 Part 1 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Part 2 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Part 3 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Part 4 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Part 5 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Part 6 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Ken Micallef’s 15-minute video showing all sorts of great turntables and other cool analog gear at FLAX 2025, go here.

For even more FLAX 2025 coverage, go here on our sister site Stereophile.