Проигрыватели виниловых дисков — VPI The Titan Direct

The Titan Direct is a direct-drive turntable from VPI Industries that takes the Magnetic Direct Drive system first developed for the company's Avenger Direct and builds it into the larger Titan platform. VPI presents it as an industrial design statement deck, drawing on its own direct-drive tables and 45 years of work on isolation and material science. It was announced in 2023 at a projected retail price of USD 60,000, and the maker's own listing later showed USD 64,000.

Key specs that matter

The 300 mm aluminium platter weighs 11.3 kg and sits on a 300 mm kingpin, driven directly at 33 and 45 rpm with no belt between motor and platter. Wow and flutter is quoted at 0.03%, speed accuracy at 0.04% and rumble at 82 dB down. Overall dimensions are about 686 x 584 x 330 mm on a 584 x 508 mm footprint, and total weight is about 54 kg. The deck is supplied as standard with the Fatboy Gimbal 12-3D tonearm and a VTA base.

Engineering and use context

The chassis is an improved double stack design, a machined acrylic, aluminium and acrylic sandwich that rests on pneumatic air-suspension isolation footers, and further resonance cancelling technology is built into the plinth. The chassis accepts as many as three arms at once, on bases of any length or manufacturer, so a single table can hold separate arms for stereo and mono cartridges.

The supplied arm uses a full gimbal bearing with a 300 mm pivot to spindle distance, a 313.0 mm effective length and 12.5 g effective mass, with 13 mm overhang and a 17.37 degree offset angle. VPI quotes average RMS tracking distortion of 0.267% for this geometry. The arm is built from epoxy resin, Delrin, copper, aluminium and steel, carries Nordost Reference internal wire and offers adjustable counterweight, azimuth and VTA, with a Limo connection at the output.

Pairing

The Titan Direct contains no phono preamplifier, so the arm output goes to an external phono stage through the Limo connection. With its effective mass the supplied arm suits medium-compliance moving-coil and moving-magnet cartridges. The size and weight call for a dedicated rack shelf or wall platform rated for its full weight, with a top at least as large as its footprint, and VPI notes that the Titan family itself grew out of the Avenger turntable line.

Alternatives

The VPI Titan is the belt-driven version on the same sandwich chassis, using a 300 rpm 24-pole AC synchronous motor instead of direct drive.