VPI Classic Series Discontinued 2017

VPI seems to be throwing everything at the drawing board and seeing what sticks. They've always done this to an extent, but it's worse than it's ever been.

The first red flag for me was their scrapping the direct drive prototype (it was called "The Vanquisher" or something --- I emailed them about it, and they denied having ever heard of such a thing despite posting announcements about it on forums). The Classic DD wasn't the result of years of research and design, but a last minute compromise, literally them sticking their special direct drive submarine motor into a Classic chassis and selling it with the plastic arm for $40k.

That's gone now, and I suspect it's because maybe one person bought it, though the official statement is that it's too finicky to send overseas (which might be true too). Reusing some older prototypes as a basis, we've now got the Avenger. Which makes one wonder: if these prototypes were never used prior til now, was it because they just didn't have the manufacturing capability, or was it because the prototypes weren't considered that great from the start?

After reading how much of a compromise the Avenger's new magnetic drive system is, my faith in VPI's ability to produce a true flagship model these days has dwindled even more. They seem to be about cutting corners as much as possible now.

Getting rid of their most stable and consistent product line is yet another bad sign to me.

 

The classic line is not going away. It's just not going to be promoted since the margins are not as good. It will be a secret menu item.

Also, even if it does go away, there is no reason not to get one. The motors will still be around. The tonearms are going to be around. There are many other great tonearms that will work with it. The Classic is such a basic design that there is nothing that will go wrong. Even today, the older TNT tables are still highly prized and upgradeable.

 

If you want to purchase new, that 2SE is not a bad deal. I'm not seeing those great deals anymore. It used to be that you could get refurbished / demo Classic 1 old model for less than $1800 and a Classic 1 newer revision for $2000. Everything has gone up. The Prime use to be $3300, moved up to $3500, now it's $4000. You can try calling Seth at SSD to ask him if you can get you a deal on any of the Classics. He might steer you into another direction though, to clear out crap they don't want.

 

That's more pictures of Mat than I've ever seen of Harry.

 

Cool. A hipster VPI Classic. I'm out.