The VPI Listening Room (what should we use?)

I like that VPI is US born as well.

An All-American budget room might be Rogue Audio driving Magnepan .7s with VPI Traveler.

 

Everything starts and depends on the space in which that gear is played. Consideration to acoustics, noise floor (NC), isolation and the like should be the first priority. A good room with a Traveler can outperform a bad or neglected room with a Classic Direct or an HR-X. What are you guys doing for room design and tuning?

 

t Mat listen to various systems at VPI dealers

Lee, As you may know, I am a c-j man and think that they should be used, however, I have heard a lot of great systems in the last few years. I heard ARC and Nola at Lyric Hi-Fi and they were great. I heard VTL and Wilson at the last NYC audio show and they blew me away. I heard Magico at the place near the flatiron district (cannot remember the name of the place ) and they were incredible. This is why I think Mat should do a tour of VPI dealers here in the NYC area and pick what sounds best to him.

 

PS: I'm a believer.

 

The classic direct and Jadis pre and amps hooked up to the Magico Q7's sound pretty amazing in our system at the shop....

 

Along with the nomad and a pair of Audeze LCD-X's.

 

Can the Nomad drive the LCD-X adequately? The Audeze headphones can be driven by things like iPhones, but the specialness of their sound suffers. Not what I'd want to do for demoing source gear when you want to impress.

 

A VPI listening room in the Northwest (specifically Portland Oregon) would be awesome. I won't be too picky about the specific gear you choose to put in the Northwest listening room. As long as it's good and up to the task. We've got great coffee, beer, and record shops in Portlandia.

 

It's a good incentive to come to NJ. Atlantic city is sweet this time of the year too.

 

The listening "experience"? (can't call it a room since it will be multiple rooms) will be essentially open to anyone whether it be dealer training, presentations... it's really a total sandbox of ideas right now. Overall Harry is making the final decisions on all of the equipment, I'll just be helping him maintain a bit of focus to make sure the setups stay realistic and representative of products (both ours and other brands) that are in the market. Though I have to say that he already set up a 3 channel Dahlquist dq-10 set-up and... WOW!

We have a Martin Logans running in one of the other rooms but we are still working on it. We put the Sanders amp in there to drive them so now the Logans are getting the power they need. Tough to tell on anything yet though, all of the equipment needs more run time. We have a pioneer being the workhorse receiver keeping the system going day and night! I took some pictures but they were pretty awful, I'll try again tomorrow with better lighting.

Side note: I hope everyone keeps in mind that my presence here on the forum and all forums (I like this one the most so I do linger here more than others) is to help when people have questions about VPI products and for fun. This thread falls under the fun category I just want to throw that out there since I have received messages, none of them bad and all very respectful, expressing concern with me responding or liking their posts. There is no agenda here just the pursuit of helping everyone enjoy their music. Heck, I have both a VPI and Rega in my apartment (I'll let you all guess which model each are) and I enjoy both of them. I chose to make my profile VPI based rather than personal so I was upfront about who I am and so there are no secrets with anything I post. /sidenote

Back on topic, I think we are going to have one of the rooms run 3 turntables using DSA so we can easily switch between them with the same system.

 

Fred's usually has a Classic of some stripe hooked up.

 

Unfortunately you have to enter Fred's to hear it. Place has not been the same without Rich.

 

The ambience definitely gets a one star review. Do not order the ambience.

 

I suggest that you have a budget CD player or computer digital set up in the budget room so you can demonstrate the sonic difference between a CD and LP of the same album.

 

We're doing pretty well in the Pacific Northwest for stereo stores that have turntables and good gear. Still... a PNW division of VPI with a showroom and listening room would be awesome.

 

Lots of American gear at all sorts of price levels. I suppose you need a high dollor room to really show off what your tables can do, but a great sounding "budget" system would also be good. How about having VPI owners send in photos of their systems that you can put up on the walls?

 

Have one of the demo CDs be an early 80s release of Roxy Music "Avalon" and have a picture of Fremer holding the CD.
(the early 80s CDs of "Avalon" were sonic duds)

 

I can vouch for the VPI Scout/Dynavector 20x2H working VERY well with a Decware ZP3.

 

OK I see you need more reasons why to visit NJ (granted, there are a lot out here on the east coast that have similar issues trying to figure out if it's worth it to visit

1) Visit VPI
2) Atlantic City
3) Hopefully spot the "Jersey Devil"
4) Spot the Toxic Avenger
4) See a Devils game
5) Visit the site of "Bridgegate"
6) Philly is right across the river (I"ll even buy you a beer if you visit)
7) Well over 100 hazardous waste sites to visit (if your into that thing - hey! how do you think the Toxic Avenger came into existence).
8) Well on second though don't visit Atlantic City - it is a silly place. Stone Harbor or Avalon would be better.

 

never hurts to have some jazz cigarettes on hand... really helps with the stereo imaging

 

I'd put some McIntosh in there somewhere in the top 2 rooms. Matt, love the fact that you are asking us. Very neat.

 

And don't forget Grado (I know, they're not in NJ). I'd love to get a selfie picture of me in front of the home of Grado.

If I do go visit VPI I'll have to make sure they have a good espresso machine and can serve the guests to their listening rooms a proper espresso. I'll put myself in charge of espresso and beer quality control.

 

lol Know what you mean.

I use a hot rodded Rancilio Silvia. Just as good as any you would get out, if not better.

 

But to be fair a budget CD player needs to be compared to a budget table.

 

You and I may live in "Beervana" but there's some excellent breweries in them parts. Although, if I make it out I'll bring a case of this: