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Anyone who has frequented a "record store" lately has discovered that it now is really a CD or tape store. The economic pressures of having to stock several different media in a limited space, and the higher profit margins of CDs, are rapidly pushing records off the shelves. It appears to me that the industry is also solving the controversy of CD versus LP by letting the quality of analog mastering and pressing drop so that good analog records are increasingly difficult to find. Even a number of re-pressings of great older recordings often exhibit major quality control problems.
The facts remain, however, that most serious music collectors have hundreds of LP records and that many great classical, jazz, and rock performances will probably never be available on CD. If you love music rather than simply the technology for reproducing it, you still need a turntable.
Further, if you love both sound and music, you will want a great turntable.
The advent of CDs has made most audiophiles far more conscious of the problems in mediocre analog systems: Record noise, limited signal-to-noise ratios, wow and flutter, limited dynamic range, and problems in timbre. Problems in turntable sound that were tolerable three or four years ago now seem far more grating to the ear. Fortunately, the twilight of analog is a twilight of the gods of analog as well. The best turntables, tonearms, and cartridges available today are far better than anything available in the not too-distant past. They not only offer all of the smoothness and sweetness, soundstaging, and other virtues of analog, they also offer greatly improved freedom from mechanical distortion, far better apparent signal-to-noise ratio, and superior ability to extract the music from the record with a minimum of surface noise. Today's reference quality phono systems redefine the state of the art in analog, and the best phono systems remain fully competitive with the best CD and DAT units.
Every reviewer is going to have his personal prejudices as to which turntable, tonearm, and cartridge now rank as the top reference units in this twilight of the analog gods. Speaking personally, I would include the top-of-the line Alphason, Goldmund, Linn, Micro Seiki, Roksan, SOTA, Versa Dynamics, and VPI models in my short list of reference-quality turntables; the top-of-the line Air Tangent, Alphason, Eminent Technology, Linn, SME, and Versa Dynamics in my short list of tone arms; and the Monster Cable Alpha Genesis, Madrigal Carnegie, Grado XTL, Koetsu Rosewood Signature, Talisman Virtuoso DTi, and van den Hul MC-One in my short list of cartridges. My list, however, is necessarily based on limited experience with all the products available and on personal taste. There are many candidates I have not had the opportunity to hear, and in spite of the problems in obtaining good records, the number of truly fine record players seems to increase daily.
This brings me to the VPI TNT turntable. It is a high-priced (about $3,000) unit whose manufacturer is ambitious enough to boast that it is an "archival quality turntable." Like a number of the very best turntables, it is visually attractive enough to qualify as a piece of sculpture. It has exceptionally clean lines, and its motor unit, turntable, dust cover, base, and black vinyl towers have the kind of high-end look that would make the VPI TNT impressive even if its sound was not of reference quality. It is also available with a separate accessory stand whose legs can be filled with sand or lead shot, which adds an important increase in resistance to acoustic breakthrough.
As for features, the VPI TNT is an attempt to perfect classic turntable design. It does not use new techniques like vacuum-coupling the record to the turntable, or an air bearing, or some radical suspension. The TNT does, however, introduce a number of other innovations in classic turntable design.
The VPI TNT uses a precision synchronous motor. VPI rejected servo motors because they felt that the self correction in a servo leads to audible modulation of rotation speed; they rejected direct drive because they felt that such motors create too much vibration in the turntable. Instead, VPI created a separate, quartz, phase locked-loop frequency-synthesizing power supply. This power supply allows precise adjustment to any speed from 33 1/3 to more than 45 rpm; it ensures that the turntable has a power supply with precisely the right voltage and line frequency and that the motor operates at the point where it has just gone synchronous. Finally, it reduces motor vibration and provides an optimal match between motor torque and that of the belt loading.
The VPI TNT uses three pulleys and two belts. One pulley is on the motor shaft; the other two are at the points of a triangle opposite the motor.
The use of three pulleys, which I believe was pioneered in a Stromberg-Carlson design in the 1950s, largely neutralizes the side load that is inevitable in a single-pulley design; this reduces both bearing wear and rumble.
The three-pulley system also allows the two passive pulleys, which have a viscous lubricant, to load the belt and smooth out the cogging that is usual in even the best motor designs.
Use of two thin belts is intended to minimize the irregularities of one large belt, and to make the pull on the platter more uniform. It also helps break up standing waves on the drive belts, stabilizing belt motion. The belts remain at their correct height on the platter without apparent up-and-down motion, and this helps reduce wow and flutter.
The VPI TNT is suspended so that a separate chassis floats on four suspension springs. VPI states that this four-spring system is "self-stabilizing" because it offers excellent stability when each spring is properly loaded, so that there is no tendency to jiggle out of control. The center of mass of the chassis is also located below the suspension springs to help eliminate the pendulum effect that may occur when the turntable chassis is hung from its springs. The adjustment of the springs is extremely easy; turning the knobs at the top of each of the four columns holding the springs brings the turntable back to level and brings the chassis back to the proper position.
The TNT's suspension system also has the advantage of letting you use virtually any modern tonearm without adjusting the turntable. This is a real godsend for audiophiles who wish to experiment with different tonearms, and it is enhanced by the fact that the TNT is one of the few top-quality turntables with enough mounting area and dust-cover clearance to allow the use of virtually any tonearm without running into space problems or having to give up the dust cover.
The turntable bearing is always a key test of turntable quality. As with all great turntable makers, VPI pays special attention to this aspect of design.
The TNT's platter rides on a precision machined bearing with a 4-inch-long shaft. The supporting bushings are widely spaced at the top and bottom to provide stable, totter-free rotation with minimum bearing surface, and the well of the bearing shaft is viscous damped.
The TNT platter is machined from a solid cylinder of high-density acrylic, matched to its specific bearing shaft.
Three equally spaced ball-bottomed screws around the center of the platter allow it to be individually leveled and ensure that it contacts the bearing flange at three small contact points.
This helps isolate the platter from bearing noise, and an O-ring is used to center the platter while again reducing platter vibration from contact with the bearing shaft.
The platter is mass-loaded with a 15 pound lead ring. This reduces both wow and flutter and any minor effect from stylus drag. At the same time, the use of non-resonant acrylic helps terminate energy from the stylus, tonearm, and record by distributing it evenly throughout the platter, minimizing its storage and rerelease back into the record. Since the same material is used in the arm board and platter, this leads to exceptional energy control throughout the turntable system.
VPI uses a screw-down record clamp rather than vacuum coupling.
The clamp pushes the record down over a rubber washer so that its rim touches the turntable first; the rest of the record's surface is then pushed down firmly to contact the balance of the platter surface. While I have found vacuum clamping to provide excellent performance, the VPI clamping system seems to work as well as vacuum clamping in coupling disc and platter and does a better job of dealing with moderately warped records.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this turntable is that it is the result of years of experimentation and that the end product represents carefully balanced design ideas based on both technical measurement and extended trial and error. There are many different ways in which given designers have produced great turntables-and competing reference-quality turntables like those from SOTA and Versa Dynamics demonstrate how successful completely different design approaches can be. What the top turntables do have in common is great attention to detail, a coherent mix of features which produce a synergistic result, and a solid combination of technical theory with extended and highly demanding fine-tuning based on listening.
Turntables do not lend themselves to easy descriptions of their individual "sounds." To start with, they are part of a record-playing system. A turntable must be evaluated in terms of the quality of the arm and cartridge used with it, and careful attention must be paid to the impact of location and acoustic breakthrough on its sound.
In making my comments about the VPI TNT, I should note that I have had the opportunity to try it with the Air Tangent tonearm as well as the Dyne vector, Eminent Technology Two, SME Series V, and SME 309 tonearms. I have also tried it with many different cartridges, and in four different high end systems: My own (with a wide range of different electronics and speakers, but generally using the Mark Levinson No. 26 preamp, Classé Audio DR-9 amplifiers, and Apogee Diva speakers) and those of three friends. I cannot say that my comments about the VPI TNT's performance will apply to all systems in all locations, but I believe they should be representative of its performance in most.
Based on my listening tests, the VPI TNT is the best turntable I have yet heard in terms of its ability to play records with minimal coloration of its own.
If you are used to mid-fi turntables, or even to a lesser but still outstanding high-end turntable, you will be amazed by the TNT's apparent signal-to-noise ratio. You hear virtually none of the mechanical variations, rumble, or other noises that disguise how good records can really be. In fact, you will often hear aspects of low-level detail, hall sound or ambience, and transient information that simply are not apparent with any but a few select turntables.
If you are an LP fan, you will rediscover your record collection. If you are a tape or CD fan, you may discover why many high-end audiophiles still feel that records provide more musically realistic detail and transparency than even the best CD and tape recordings and playback systems.
The VPI TNT also has superb bass.
Most turntables lose much of the low bass energy and information on records; many of those that do reproduce deep bass with adequate power have something of a one-note character.
The TNT provides power, definition, and control. There is neither the tendency to emphasize the midrange at the expense of the bass nor the tendency to provide bass at the expense of midrange energy and life.
The midrange is smooth, from the lower midrange to the upper midrange.
There is remarkably little coloration, and it is interesting to compare the midrange sound of the VPI TNT to the midrange reproduced by a top digital decoder like the Theta Digital DS Pre or a Wadia system. The resulting midranges are remarkably similar in timbre, with no leanness in the lower midrange or emphasis or loss in the upper midrange.
The sound characteristics of given cartridges and tonearms become far clearer with a turntable of this quality.
With a carefully damped SME Series V tonearm and a Monster Cable Alpha Genesis cartridge, the VPI not only reproduces midrange frequencies smoothly, it also reproduces midrange detail and transient information with an exactness that rivals the best digital decoders and a sweetness and musicality that often outperforms them.
The upper octaves and treble in the VPI TNT are equally outstanding. The vast majority of high-end turntables seem to dull the upper octaves and "over-damp" them or to emphasize some frequencies in the upper midrange and the treble in a way that increases apparent record noise (as well as the tape hiss on older records) and makes you more conscious of the fact that you are listening to a recording.
Like a few other top turntables, the TNT gives you all the musical information present in the upper octaves but avoids any clearly apparent coloration of its own. The end result is upper octave performance much closer to a top analog or digital master tape than to a turntable playing a record.
The VPI TNT produces a superb soundstage. This is an area where the very best turntables still outperform consumer-level digital equipment, and the TNT has superb soundstage width and depth. With really good recorded material and a properly set-up system, the TNT's soundstage seems to extend in an unbroken arc from well to the right to well to the left of the speakers.
Depth is excellent, and the imaging is not only stable from right to left but clearly places instruments in depth.
The VPI even provides this kind of imaging data with complex percussion music, something that only a few turntables can do.
Finally, the TNT provides an excellent mix of dynamics and transient speed and detail, with consistently realistic musical dynamics at all levels of recorded sound. Many turntables seem to perform best at a given level of musical energy and have trouble reproducing the dynamics of very soft or loud passages. The TNT provides an amazing amount of transient information with really good recordings.
The speed and resolution on bells, the handling of complex percussion, the ability to resolve choral music, and the ability to locate and separate complex passages by mixed wind instruments are all outstanding. Rock fans will discover just how much additional information a really good turntable can reveal. Many tend to strip the life from rock recordings and give them a two-dimensional character; the VPI TNT restores the kind of transient information and dynamics necessary to make rock music come alive.
It should be obvious from the above comments that I feel a properly set-up VPI TNT, as with a handful of other top turntables, can rival the best digital playback systems and often surpass them. (I should stress that I am talking about digital playback systems in the $5,000 to $14,000 range, and not ordinary CD players or consumer DAT decks.) You can confirm these comments for yourself, if you have a high end dealer, by listening to both the CD and analog versions of some top-quality recordings. There is no golden-ear mystique involved; I am confident that you will hear what I hear.
I should stress, however, that getting great reproduction from a great turntable often requires the help of a great dealer. Virtually any literate audiophile can plug in a leading digital system and get the best out of it. However, if you do not have extensive experience in turntable setup or in matching turntables, arms, and cartridges, you are going to have to work closely with the kind of high-end dealer who really cares about what he sells.
In practice, I would suggest that you begin by listening to the VPI TNT in comparison with some of the other top turntables mentioned previously. In the process, you will probably hear the TNT with one of the arms I have listed.
You should, however, try several arms once you have firmly chosen the turntable you feel sounds best. You should very definitely try the turntable and tonearm combination that you choose with several cartridges, in order to make sure you are getting the synergy between components that suits your particular taste.
Once you buy a unit like the VPI TNT, I recommend that you have your dealer carefully walk you through the setup instructions-or, better, have the dealer set up the turntable in your home, advising you on location. You cannot, incidentally, expect a dealer to provide this kind of service and a discount; a charge for home installation is perfectly legitimate. Unless you have a great deal of personal expertise, however, I think you will find the added cost more than worth it. I have seen and heard far too many phono systems that were marred by poor matching of turntable, tonearm, and cartridge, as well as by poor final setup and placement. A reference-quality component like the VPI TNT deserves to be heard at its best.
-Anthony H. Cordesman
(Source: Audio magazine, Dec. 1989)
Also see:
VPI TNT III Turntable with Flywheel (Auricle; Jan. 1996)
VPI HW 19-MKII Turntable (Jan. 1987)
Well Tempered Turntable (July 1988)
Well Tempered Tonearm and Van Den Hul MC-One Cartridge (July 1988)
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