VPI turntables

The bulk of your performance gain will be with the 3-D arm. I replaced the JMW-9 with the 10.5 inch 3-D and things got much cleaner and more organized. Then moved that arm to a Prime chassis and saw less improvement than I anticipated.

The new Prime 21 is at least $5500.00. When I bought my Prime with the unipivot arm ( worst tonearm ever) it was $4000.00 without cartridge. I went to the new Technics SL1200G for four thousand. I love it. I think you saw it in my system the last time you came up. If you do get a Prime, I would go with their newer gimbaled arm, it should be a lot less fussy.

I wouldn’t classify the unipivot arm as the “worst ever”. Far from it. Yes it is fussy but once set up, it’s amazing IMO. You might consider the used market. That’s what I did and got a great deal on a Prime. Maybe you can benefit from someone mistakenly thinking it’s the worst. Their loss could be your gain.

On my VPI tables I notices the biggest improvement was in the tonearms.  The basic platform is good, but the the unipivot tonearm is their weak link.  I tried a 12" Jelco TK-850L arm and experienced a significant improvement.  The gimbaled arms that VPI offers have been reported to be a significant improvement as well.

The SS cartridges are nice, but moving to a gimbaled tonearm will make Lyra carts sing with the right setup.  .  

When I bought my VPI it was way up the chain. It is the HW-40 which is direct drive and has the 12" gimbal arm. I have the Ortofon Cadenza Black and cannot be happier with the setup.