Vanquish with Genesis CES 2017
A long anticipated musical collaboration was VPI and Genesis Advanced Technologies. Having been paired many times together in systems around the world, both companies respect each others engineering, love for music, and love for great American Hi-Fi. CEO Gary Koh visited us at our factory in New Jersey back in October with our shared distributor Wuti Larnroongroj, owner of Audio Excellence. Together we all enjoyed a day of listening to music while exchanging audio ideas and methodology for improved sound quality. At the end of the visit it was decided that Gary should be one of the the few use an extremely limited Harry Weisfeld Vanquish Turntable (AKA Avenger Direct).
The Vanquish is based of the original award winning Classic Direct Drive turntable we made years ago. The Classic Direct received multiple reviewer awards including product of the year from Tone Audio, Stereophile, and Class A+. The only limitation was its inability to mount multiple arms and the desire for improved table suspension. Harry furthered his original design by creating pneumatic air-suspension feet and fitting the direct drive motor into a VPI Avenger Chassis. This opened the design to house up to 3 tonearms of any make or finish.
Words from Gary:
"Serendipity, that's what it boils down to. Sometimes, things happen for a reason. I was already re-designing the cabinet of the Genesis Maestro to improve the quality of the bass - depth, nuance, texture, timbre - and already had another pair of prototype cabinets on the way. Then, my friend Wuti Larnroongroj introduced me to Harry Weisfeld and when we visited his home, and I listened to the VPI Vanquish, I knew that I had to have it for demo to show off the bass ability of the new Maestro.
If it ain't in the source, then it ain't gonna come out the speakers. Just about then, Bob Clarke sent me the new Transfiguration Proteus D with the diamond cantilever.... which was designed for better bass. I then had to improve the Genesis Platinum Phono to handle the improved dynamics and bass of the new cartridge. And just 3 weeks ago, Amedeo Schembri flew from Italy to Austin. Visiting Bob Clarke to incorporate the latest power supply upgrades into the Viva Aurora monoblocks that we were going to use. To improve the bass......
The Friday before we had to ship the system for CES (on Monday), I received from Mat Weisfeld a new tonearm for the Vanquish...... to improve the bass, said Harry. And, literally the day before coming to Las Vegas, Steve McCormack put the final screws into his new power supply..... you guessed it, to improve the bass. The result of all these upgrades, is not more bass, but as Bob calls it, "stupidly good bass"."
One of the great joys of coming to audio shows is meeting with friends in the music industry. The lovely Anne Bisson turned up with a signed copy of her latest album, Conversations for me..... and the cover for her next project - the 45rpm, 2-disc version of Blue Mind re-mastered by Bernie Grundman. Pre-orders on her website!! This album is a personal favorite in our listening room at VPI and was a wedding present from Anne Bisson's partner in crime, Vincent Bélanger.
From the first moment Jane and myself sat down in the room we were blown away by the sound. Gary has an eclectic taste for music from classical to heavy metal and punk! A crowd favorite was the sound track from Star Wars, the Force Awakens. Considering the usual setup issues at all trade shows, the Genesis room had none of those problems having a seamless and well thought out setup. It was a pleasure being a part of this musical system and we hope this is the first of many more like it!
