Turntable Reviews

The first commandment for a Stereophile reporter is to remain neutral about any product under review. But when a company has a history of making things you like, that isn't always easy to do.

Reviewing the VPI Avenger Direct turntable with its 12" FatBoy tonearm, I concluded, "The Avenger Direct recasts records I thought I knew well, revealing secrets and expressing a purer sense of each one's interior life." Covering the VPI Scout 21 for Stereophile's sister website, AnalogPlanet in October 2024, I wrote, "this $3300 table seriously swung and played it all warm and toasty, displaying a big heart. I would even say it displayed an inherent love of music, reflected in its wide rhythmic gait and warmhearted embrace of the LPs I spun on it. The 21 'table is quite the fine fit in the VPI sound family."

Despite my scarcely contained enthusiasm for these previous VPI products, I promise an unvarnished take on the Forever Model One turntable ($5250), which builds on one of the company's long-ago bestsellers, the HW-19, which was first produced in the early 1980s.

During a visit not too long ago to the VPI House in Cliffwood, New Jersey, managing editor Mark Henninger and I filmed an episode of Stereophile Icons about VPI, especially its founder, Harry Weisfeld. After the interview, Harry gave me a tour of his basement lair, a museum of audio history that houses equipment: Quad ESL 57 and Ohm F loudspeakers; early Marantz preamplifiers; Denon turntables; reel-to-reel decks from Tandberg, Pioneer, and Technics. I recalled that earlier visit as I talked to Harry by phone.

"We wanted to update the HW-19, which I produced from 1980 until about 1999," Harry told me. "Many things are better now, like CNC machining. When I first made these in 1980, every piece was handmade. ... CNC is amazingly accurate."

"Mat designed most of the Prime turntable. Mat knew the HW-19 well, and I knew the arm well, so we designed [the Forever Model One] together. We tuned it together," Harry added. "Mat designed the base. I did most of the arm work.

"People say they want to buy a turntable that looks like a turntable, right? Not the lunar landing module." Resembling several classic suspended 'tables with separate armboards including the Ariston RD11, Thorens TD 150 and TD 125, and the Linn Sondek LP12, the VPI Forever Model One fulfills that criterion handily.

Design and features

The F1 introduces several VPI innovations: their new S-shaped tonearm (dubbed the S-Tonearm), a return to suspended design for the first time in nearly 50 years, and a modular platform intended for future enhancements.

The turntable's dimensions (21.5" wide, 16" deep, 8" high) and substantial 40lb weight juxtapose a modern aluminum plinth and sleek tonearm with the traditional warmth of a solid oak frame, a nod to classic design.

The Tonearm
The new 10", statically balanced, S-shaped tonearm uses 6061 aluminum alloy throughout. Throughout, as in the armwand, counterweight, cueing lever, base, VTA dial, antiskate rod, fingerlift, and detachable headshell—all 6061 aluminum alloy, chosen for its mechanical properties, weldability, machinability, and suitability for extrusion. "That's what they use in airplanes," Harry offered. "6061 machines beautifully, it's fairly rigid, and it paints beautifully. The tonearm parts are all CNC machined."

The arm's S-shape was inspired by dearly departed tonearm maker Jelco. "The Jelco arm, when available, was the hit of the audio industry," Harry noted. "The Linn arm, the Grado arm, the Ortofon arm—all made by Jelco. COVID hit, and Jelco—Ichikawa Jewel Co. Ltd.—went out of business. I told Mat, 'We need to make a different arm with a removable headshell; why don't we just copy the Jelco 750D?' They calculated all the angles already. Just reproduce the shape and size; we'll do everything else ourselves."

The VPI S-Tonearm differs from the Jelco 750D it's based on in a couple of important respects. "Most armwands are tubes," Harry said. "This tonearm is solid 6061 aluminum. Every tube resonates internally. That's why they stuff things into tubes or make them from sapphire using 3D printing. ... Nordost Valhalla wires, from cartridge to RCA jacks, are hidden inside a small rubber strip inserted in a groove on the arm's base. No connections. Way better. The rubber strip helps damp the arm."

Harry Weisfeld's skepticism about antiskate is well known. "A record hole isn't perfectly centered, so the arm constantly moves back and forth," Weisfeld explained. "Using antiskate constantly lifts and drops the tonearm. Every time it does that, the cartridge can't level. With a very good system, you hear the difference. If you don't use antiskate and set the cartridge at the top of the manufacturer's recommended tracking force, it stays in the groove. Antiskate is like trying to shoot a guy in a car while you're on a horse."

"VPI uses ABEC 5 bearings to eliminate chatter and ensure long life of the tonearm," says some words on the VPI website. I asked Harry to elaborate. "Two ABEC 5 bearings on each side cover vertical motion," Harry noted. "The tonearm goes into the armbase. A rod inside connects to two bearings for horizontal motion. So, four total."

I wrote that the tonearm is all aluminum. That isn't quite true: You wouldn't use aluminum for bearings. It's too soft. "ABEC 5 stainless steel bearings, made in Japan," Harry said. "Japanese bearings are phenomenal. Spin it, and it feels like it wants to run—very little friction. The ABEC 5 is the same bearing type but less expensive than the ABEC 7s in our FatBoy tonearm. They have very tight tolerances, so there's no play."

The 'table
The F1's aluminum platter weighs 20lb. It descends from earlier VPI models (HW-40, Prime, Classic), but with a twist. "This one is damped by an HDF doughnut underneath. Harmonic resolution tests showed HDF beat rubber, Sorbothane, everything. I disliked using MDF due to potential water damage, but that's not an issue in a platter. This is actually HDF—high-density fiberboard—it really damps the platter. Hit the platter: It's completely dead. No ring."

The Forever One features VPI's new three-point suspension. Drawing on earlier suspended designs, VPI assembles the F1's suspension from precision CNC-machined aluminum parts. The suspension's heart is a 0.5" thick 6061 aluminum alloy slab that acts as a floating subchassis, isolated by three inverted Sorbothane stanchions—not springs. This subchassis/Sorbothane combination holds three leveling screws, which attach to the 0.625"–thick upper aluminum plate and aluminum armboard. An inverted stainless steel bearing fits into the floating subchassis, effectively isolating the platter and armboard together so that they can work together, separate from the solid oak frame. A nonmagnetic stainless steel spindle is affixed within the platter bearing.

"The F1's subchassis, the inner chassis holding the components, is solid machined aluminum," Harry explained. "It doesn't bend or vibrate. A polymer coating is on the bottom. It's solid as a rock. If the platter moves, the armboard moves with it simultaneously. No random motion between platter and arm. The suspension screw rod goes through the stationary top plate and the floating subchassis. Beneath the subchassis are the inverted Sorbothane 'bells' it sits on."

The Forever One is a belt drive 'table. VPI attaches a 300rpm, 24-pole AC synchronous motor with a 14-gauge solid-steel base to the oak frame, avoiding contact with the subchassis, upper plate, and armboard, for better isolation from the motor's vibrations. "The motor mounts to the top aluminum plate, which mounts to the wood frame," Harry said. "The AC motor is heatsinked and damped by the aluminum. I love AC motors. An AC motor knows where it a DC motor knows where it was. Feed an AC synchronous motor a 60Hz signal, and it locks speed and never moves." The large adjustable feet are borrowed from the VPI HW-40 Black Edition turntable. It comes with a hinged dustcover.

"I did the bottle test with this 'table," Harry confirmed. "I take a bottle of water, slam it down on the turntable. If the arm doesn't jump, I'm happy."

VPI presents the F1 as a modular, future-proof system, reflecting their engineering history. The most obvious way it's modular is the tonearm: You can upgrade the S version to a gimballed or unipivot FatBoy tonearm, and you can use it with any arm of your choosing. With each arm mounted on its own armboard, swapping out tonearms will be easy. After the first production run, the Forever One will be available without a tonearm at a lower price, and the S-Tonearm will be sold separately. Anticipated upgrades include a dedicated 45rpm control; currently, users who want to play 45s must remove the pulley cover and manually reposition the rubber belt on the motor pulley. The Forever One comes with a 10-year warranty, twice as long as (eg) VPI's Prime and Classic series.

"This entire turntable, from design to production, is a love letter to VPI's original foundation, now enhanced by the improved engineering and design capabilities we have today," Mat Weisfeld wrote in an email.