By Australian HiFi | Saturday, 27 January 2018 06:06
VPI teamed with more than 22 other manufacturers at CES 2018 to ensure that its products were on show in eleven different suites on the 29th floor of the Venetian Hotel at Las Vegas.
In Suite 225-29, VPI had teamed with Totem Acoustics and Transparent Audio, by supplying its new US$900 Cliffwood turntable (fitted with a Grado Green MM cartridge), driving a Moon by Simaudio 240i integrated amplifier ($US2,100) which in turn was driving a pair of Totem Acoustics’ new Signature One bookshelf loudspeakers ($US2,650 per pair), thanks to being connected by Transparent cable.
The VPI Cliffwood (so-named because it’s built in VPI’s factory in Cliffwood, New Jersey) will initially only be available in the US (with a predicted ship date of August) but will later become available on the global market, including here in Australia, where it will be distributed by Krispy Audio. It has a 32mm thick textured vinyl-covered non-resonant MDF chassis, and an aluminium platter that rotates on an oil bath bearing with a PEEK thrust disc and machined graphite impregnated brass bushings using a Thompson Engineering 60 Rockwell case hardened shaft.
The tonearm fitted to the Cliffwood is a new 9-inch vertical yoke-type with a lateral bearing, a damped machined aluminium armtube, a pivot to spindle distance of 223mm and an effective length of 240.7mm.