All
VPI
Website:https://www.vpidirect.com/
Est. year: 1978
VPI Industries is a privately held American maker of turntables, tonearms and record-care machines, based in Cliffwood, New Jersey. Harry and Sheila Weisfeld started it in 1978 in the basement of their home in Howard Beach, New York. Its first turntable, the HW-19, arrived in 1981, a year before the first commercial CD player, and the company kept building record decks right through the move to digital formats.
Range & what it's known for
The turntable range runs from compact decks to heavy direct-drive designs. The Prime pairs a curved MDF chassis braced with a steel plate with an outboard motor and a 9 kg aluminium platter on an inverted bearing. The HW-40 of 2020 is a direct-drive model with a coreless brushless motor from ThinGap, a ring encoder reading 2,460 pulses per revolution, an 18-pound platter and a 70-pound plinth. VPI is also known for 3D-printed tonearms, offered as a unipivot on the Prime and as the gimbal-bearing JMW-12 Fatboy with adjustable azimuth on the HW-40.
Who owns it and where it's made
The business remains in the Weisfeld family. Harry designed the early turntables and record cleaners while Sheila ran orders and administration. After her death in 2011 their son Mat Weisfeld became president, with Harry staying on as a design adviser. Turntables have been built in Cliffwood for more than thirty years, and the company has stressed that even its cheaper decks use parts not sourced abroad.
The lineup in this catalog
Turntables are the category listed here. A compact belt-drive deck costs about USD 1,500, and the most expensive decks are well over USD 30,000.
Who it's for
VPI builds for record collectors who want a deck engineered and assembled in the United States, with the option to move up inside one maker. A compact belt-drive model is a sensible start for a first serious analogue system, the Prime is the middle step, and the HW-40 serves those who want direct drive with a 12-inch arm. Owners of a large record collection can add a VPI cleaning machine from the same family workshop.
Range & what it's known for
The turntable range runs from compact decks to heavy direct-drive designs. The Prime pairs a curved MDF chassis braced with a steel plate with an outboard motor and a 9 kg aluminium platter on an inverted bearing. The HW-40 of 2020 is a direct-drive model with a coreless brushless motor from ThinGap, a ring encoder reading 2,460 pulses per revolution, an 18-pound platter and a 70-pound plinth. VPI is also known for 3D-printed tonearms, offered as a unipivot on the Prime and as the gimbal-bearing JMW-12 Fatboy with adjustable azimuth on the HW-40.
Who owns it and where it's made
The business remains in the Weisfeld family. Harry designed the early turntables and record cleaners while Sheila ran orders and administration. After her death in 2011 their son Mat Weisfeld became president, with Harry staying on as a design adviser. Turntables have been built in Cliffwood for more than thirty years, and the company has stressed that even its cheaper decks use parts not sourced abroad.
The lineup in this catalog
Turntables are the category listed here. A compact belt-drive deck costs about USD 1,500, and the most expensive decks are well over USD 30,000.
Who it's for
VPI builds for record collectors who want a deck engineered and assembled in the United States, with the option to move up inside one maker. A compact belt-drive model is a sensible start for a first serious analogue system, the Prime is the middle step, and the HW-40 serves those who want direct drive with a 12-inch arm. Owners of a large record collection can add a VPI cleaning machine from the same family workshop.
