 VPI Russian Distributors T-Art knows how to party! March 2-3, 2018 at the Moscow salon " Нота+" T-Art participated in the annual exhibition-sale " Vinyl Jam " 2018. At this event they were spinning the all in one VPI flavor, the Player!  The Player in walnut with pre-mounted Ortofon 2M Red matched the walnut Cable Acoustic Purist Audio Design Musaeus Speakers perfectly! Driven by Amplifier Tube Integral Audio Evolution. Below is a full list of all of the gear used at the show.  This modest but elegant system is a great example of high performance in a realistic environment and a great representation of the VPI products at an audio show. If you are in Russia and want to audition VPI make sure to reach out to T-Art and learn more!  👇 👇 👇 Player Player Disc Player (USA)
Audio Physic Classic 5 (Germany) Amplifier Tube Integral Audio Evolution ELEGANCE (Serbia) Network Trafomatic Audio Model 500 (Serbia) Cable Mežbločnyj Purist Audio Design Poseidon RCA Interconnect 1.0 m luminist revision (USA) Cable Acoustic Purist Audio Design Musaeus Speaker 2.0 m luminist revision (USA)
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 We can thank Ofra Gershman from Gershman Acoustics for getting me on a plane to Chicago this year. With the recent addition to my family I was on the fence aboutAxpona this year not wanting to miss any milestone daddy moments. Receiving a call from Ofra and the idea of creating music with the Gershmans and long time friends at Valve Amplification Company / VAC and Nordost Cable made me think twice about Axpona 2018. The system was featuring the top echelon of the Gershman, VAC, and Nordost product-line. With their stunning Posh speakers at the forefront of the system, nothing less than a VPI Titan seemed appropriate for this match up. The timing couldn't have been better since we recently started shipping our "Fatboy" Tonearm and a lot of people have been anxious for a live demonstration.  Another sign the planets were all in alignment, we don't usually have a Titan sitting around but one was about to ship for review and was literally sitting in-front of me! We snatched up the Titan, (sorry Dave Robinson! over at Positive Feedback) and with a little help from our new dealer, the Audio Surgeon, the Titan made its way out to Chicago for some deep dish and music!  Besides the hefty weight of everyone's products, installation was quick and relatively painless! Eli from Gershman and Kevin from VAC had a chance to flex their muscles and help me get the Titan assembled. We didn't realize how much the Posh speakers and Titan ascetically matched until they were next to each-other. They are truly a perfect visual (and musical) match!  Some fine adjustment and dialing in we had our Audio-Technica ART1000 Direct Power Cartridge ready to spin on the Titan. In the past I found the ART to be a bit fussy with the through holes, but this installation was extremely easy and fast to dial in. The ART and Fatboy Gimbal was a fantastic match both in set-up and sound being beyond rewarding for the music.  Kevin Hayes, owner and operator of VAC configured his electronics with the appropriate settings for the Audio Technical ART 1000. Having multiple inputs on the VAC phono, it is a shame we didn't have a second arm-board! Nothing like the warmth of tubes to make up for cold Chicago weather.  Fired up with music all respective manufacturers were able to subtly dial in each components to accommodate the room and achieve the sound signature we were lookign for. I was very impressed with how versatile the Posh speakers are and how much you can adjust them for the room. One visitor thought that Gershman and VPI coordinated on the designs of our products because of how well the industrial design matched with each-other, I guess great minds think a like! At first blush we were worried about the base not having enough dynamics, I only mention this because you should always let their system run before being hyper critical! Roughly 30-45 minutes all components started to come alive and the expected punch and dynamics fell right into place. We spun the usual musical suspects to make sure we were satisfied. David Brubeck was first up with the layering of instrumentals and wide sound stage. Topped of with a 45 test pressing of Peter, Paul, and Marry. The imaging was dead on and Marry's voice was a natural and detailed as can be.  While we are all in this industry for the music, it is the people that really make it great! Having a chance to finally spend some real time and get to know the Gershmans was the highlight for me about this year's 2018 Axpona! Looking forward to playing more music with this top notch team and very happy I received that call from Ofra that twisted my arm to come out to Chicago this year!   This post is about the unsung heroes of this industry, the Record Stores! Without the records/software we would have no software to drive this industry. The record pressing companies have been pushing their production level to the max with new releases and reissues! You can walk into any record store and find the new release of your favorite artist or thumb through the dollar bin to search for hidden treasure. Recently we had an event with one of our New York Dealers, Stereo Exchange. You can click here to read more about that event. The VPI team walked in, setup the system, had a chance to grab a black and white cookie when we realized we left all of our demo records back in New Jersey! Every time we go to an audio show, dealer event, or demonstration we like to bring a flavor of what we like and listen to. Never fear, Academy records is here!  In walking distance, we made our way to Academy Records which must have been strange to have a whole team of VPI guys walk in at the same time. It might have seemed like we were there for and audio hit-job! We were warmly welcomed by the staff and encouraged to check it out. Immediately my staff team members Marc and Ari vanished into record bins along with Harry who we still haven’t seen or heard from! What really blew my mind was walking to the back and spotting a VPI HW-19 with a VPI 20th Anniversary emblem on it! It made our day to have such a positive spur of the moment record purchasing experience and see one of our original tables in daily use.  Major thanks to Academy Records for saving the day! Everyone at the Stereo Exchange event loved the music we brought from the store!
 It has been a long road for Stereo Exchange in their adventure to finding a new home, but they certainly have found it! In their new studio loft they had their first event since their grand opening and the room was packed! The loft showroom has a wide range of products and price ranges for all customers, especially looking for New York City friendly set-ups. We really liked that David Wasserman, owner of Stereo Exchange, made the decision to showcase affordable/entry level products with a lot of sound to go with the reasonable price tag.  While they have a variety of brands the ones featured for the event were our friends at Totem Acoustics, Rogue Audio, and Transparent Cable with our VPI Cliffwood turntable. This system make up is very similar to the affordable combination we have in our own demo room and what was used at CES. This is a large room and the modest system had no problem filling it with quality sound.  After a few records on the modest system and hearing keynote presentations from all of the mentioned companies, we turned the chairs around to the next level up for all of the respective brands. The two different levels of systems gave the listeners a chance to hear where they could start on their audio journey and where they could eventually grow into.  Side note, as the whole VPI team walked in the door we all looked at each other and realized we left our records back in New Jersey! This led to a quick adventure to a record store down the street which I will save for another post. Let this be a lesson to all, never leave home without your records, or you might find yourself buying even more! (that is not a bad thing!)  All in all the event was another Stereo Exchange success and captured the goal of bringing customers closer to music and having first hand conversations with key people from each respective company. Events like this are the best to make new friends and connections in the industry. We are excited and proud of the home for Stereo Exchange and look forward to many more events in the future!  |
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