VPI's $900 Cliffwood introduced

Uturn - 500 bucks, better tonearm (seemingly), Ortofon 2M red. Done.

 

Cheap TT < Gungnir Multibit/Yggdrasil < Gungnir Multibit/Yggdrasil with good tube output stage < Proper TT setup (4k used, 8k new)

 

It does suck being poor. I guess CD purgatory ain't so bad ... CD's are so cheap these days, at least compared to vinyl.

 

any ideas on where to learn all this stuff?

 

well, I dont know why you'd want to learn how to break a cantilever

..but for the fundamentals and other stuff, I find digging through the forums over at vinylengine and stevehoffman helps. That and then some experimentation of my own. I'm not an expert at all, but I'm saying this based on the few months I've owned my own turntable and knowing how many mistakes I've made along with all the good stuff makes me happy I started with something that doesnt cost $1000+

 

I don't think VTA 'on the fly' is going to happen at this price point, but you're right,it would be nice to see some way to adjust it other than, maybe, shims. Azimuth can be jury rigged I guess, but why not have a detachable headshell, and provide, or offer, a headshell with azimuth adjustment? I guess Rega has been getting away with these same issues for decades, so maybe we're outliers...

Even Regas have antiskate though. Oh that's right, the laws of physics don't apply on HW's decks.

 

I've got a few places bookmarked from around the web and here, but it would be nice for a centralized "all you need to know" guide for getting started. Particularly all the manual adjustments and stuff that one should know how to perform.

 

That vinyl wrap gives it all the Olde Worlde charm and grace of an 80s Dodge Caravan with the optional Faux Wood Exterior Cladding. And what exactly is a "Lateral Type Bearing"? Are they bragging that their tonearms move laterally, 'as well as vertically!'?

My advice for a vinyl rando would be a non-DJed, well cared for SL-1200. Nice ones sell for >1k, and can be resold for the same. Accurate speed, decent arms, well built.

 

There are a bunch of us hoping for the Gungnir Multibit of turntables to arrive. At least there are companies trying to invade the $1k space

Don't let vinyl scare you out of the turntable game. There are so many opportunities to score records on the cheap. Maybe you don't get the "limited pressing", but learn your local record shops instead, household sales and the like. Heck, I just got "Graceland 25th anniversary" and Queen's 1973 debut album on a 180 gram disc for $13 and $14 on Amazon Warehouse Deals....(I know, I know, impulse buys while buying boring crap)

 

There are a whole lot more things to a TT setup than just the TT. Even if there was an affordable TT that could provide the performance of TTs that go for 2k used, including a good tonearm (which is unlikely will happen), you would still have to get a good cart, a good phono pre and decent cables. Those last three can easily run you more than what you paid for the TT, but are super important for the performance. And streaming is often a whole lot cheaper than buying records.
I guess what I'm trying to say is it won't happen. Only time will tell.

To clarify my above statement:
Personally I don't care at all for the sound of "my" TT setup (my dad's old TT, an old Dual with VM red cart and Mani pre). I never use it. My dad's TT setup in the living room (VPI Classic 1 with Lyra Delos cart and Restek MRIA+ pre) is something else. And even then it's probably far from the best you can get. It just goes on and on in the analog world.

 

I don't have a lot of hope for the VPI to be great, but I am hoping that the MFSL tables will be a huge bang for their buck and be able to play with the $4k tables. Their whole drive was to make a really great affordable table. Same with their new phonostages. The VPI Classic was one of the few that played in that price range well.

 

I know this doesn't exactly go here, but in my reading about the MoFi turntables and phono pre's coming out, I came across that Mobile Fidelity (edit: brand rights) was acquired by Music Direct (source).
Now, I may be cynical, but it is unclear to me why a company that makes its living selling high-price-tag OFRAS.org gear and $100 albums would want to create a table and phono pre that makes all of that gear appear overpriced and poor value hence cutting into those sales.

I'm inclined to think that it will be more of the same except this time it has a pedigree of designers involved. If you pay people enough, they will attach their name to it. I hope I am wrong and eat my words. I think the most likely source of low priced gear that could play with the big boys would be U-Turn audio. They are already beating the mid-fi turntables for much less money because, like Schiit, they are direct sales.
For VPI, they tried with the Traveler, Nomad, Player, new Prime Scout and now the Cliffwood to break into the budget audiophile segment. This time they are using a $100 Grado cart instead of the ubiquitous 2M Red. Good luck, but, mainly because they are direct sales instead of dealers, U-turn can do better for $500.

 

Okay, I laughed way more than I should have at 'Fonzimeter'.

 

That was in reference to the ability to use a JMW arm on this table, which might have the VTA on the fly base. Of course that's more money, and likely far less bang for the buck when combined with this particular table than a used Classic 1.

Just trying to make the point that I'd exclude any table that doesn't give me an arm with certain features. Azimuth is one. Even high end arms, like some from SME, don't provide the feature. VTA on the fly is more of a nice to have, and certainly not expected at the entry level. That said, personally, I love it.

This is a pretty good read to start with:
http://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2016/1/17/a-beginners-guide-to-cartridge-setup

• VTF requires a scale. Scales are cheap.
• 
  
• For Azimuth, I do like the Fonzimeter. But you can get pretty damn close by sight with a loupe and mirror. Some people do it by ear. I can't.
• 
  
• For VTA, I do it by sight first and finalize by ear. I use a loupe. I've been thinking about getting a USB microscope to take a high mag image and measure the angle. But, no time.
• 
  
• For anti-skate I use the test record. I have a few LPs whose inner grooves, for whatever reason, are sensitive to my antiskate setting. 90% or more are not, so far as I can tell by ear. By that, I mean thst most of the time I can't hear a difference between anti-skate on minimum vs dialed in to "where it should be" with the test record.

 

From a very personal standpoint, some of my tonearms have azimuth settings, and some do not. Both of the following tonearms that I own do not have azimuth settings and they sound....well heavenly:

Helius Omega Silver Ruby:


Schick 12" by Thomas Schick:


Both the tonearms above are far beyond entry level, but my main point is that it is helpful to have azimuth settings, no doubt, but not an absolute must have. Get a well aligned cartridge and you are good to go. There is a lot more to analog than meets the eye.

Now, please draw your attention to the bearing design of the Schick tonearm above. And here is the bearing design of the VPI Cliffwood:



Can one draw the conclusion that the Schick tonearm is now useless?
That Schick is one of my best sounding tonearms (I have 17 tonearms PLUS a new one on order).

My point is, it has to be heard to decide if the tonearm is worth its salt or not.
Oh, Rega tonearms have no Azimuth adjustment either at all (the way it is done is by shimming the cartridge or shimming the tonearm base, if it MUST be done).

 

@shaizada you most certainly have more experience than I do. I'm also probs more OCD and less patient. Haha. But I do like convenience and get annoyed by poorly engineered products, or products that make difficult things that ought not be.

Here's the azimuth adjustment I needed to make on this arm, with a not-cheap cart. I'd hate to have had no adjustability or have needed to screw with shims. It was not off by a little in the perpendicular arm position.