A battle between two turntable generations. Which one is the winner?

I have acquired another table even better suited to the Terminator than the HW-19 Mk.4 (but with a TNT aluminum/Delrin platter)---a VPI Aries Mk.1. Now I can mount my Helius Silver Omega on the HW-19, while still having my Townshend Elite Rock with Zeta arm. Most tables I've ever had at once! I need another cartridge now, think I'll get a mono.

Say terry9 and harold-not-the-barrel, it looks like the Rena 400 pump Vic recommends for U.S. users has been discontinued. What pump do you guys have?

Thanks for your thoughts slaw and h-n-t-b, as always. The moving mass interacting with a soft suspension that I spoke of was that of the ET’s arm, which is considerably greater than that of the Trans-Fi. Brooks Berdan came up with that mod of his for the Oracle Delphi, of adding mass in a particular location of the tables floating sub-chassis, specifically to keep the suspension’s bounce perfectly vertical, even with the mass of the ET arm (an arm he really liked, and sold a lot of) moving across the LP.

By the way, I’ll be trying various isolators in place of the HW-19’s springs, but the table will be on a platform isolated from the top shelf of the equipment rack it sits on with, probably, Townshend Audio Seismic Pods. I have lots of sets of Ingress Engineering roller bearings, which do a great job of isolating in all planes but the vertical, where they instead couple. Can’t have that!

Slaw, I now see the method of your madness! LP’s can be had via Amazon for $13? I like to buy local in cause of warps, etc., but for the $10 difference I’ll take the chance! I bought my Beatles and Dylan mono LP boxsets mail order, ’cause they were SO cheap. Oregon doesn’t have State sales tax, but Amazon charges tax to Washington addresses. But the gas to drive into Portland from Vancouver is probably as much as the tax!

Slaw, I recently got myself a VPI HW-19, the second one I’ve owned. I had an original Mk.1 (with a Mk.2 black platter) in the late 80’s/early 90’s that I was quite happy with, but sold it when I got a Townshend Audio Elite Rock (Mk.2). This HW-19 is a Mk.2 (but with black acrylic top plates, not MDF) with a TNT Mk.3 platter (3/4" aluminum, 1/2" black Delrin/acrylic) and bearing. I have Herbies Tenderfeet and SIMS Navcom Isolators to try in place of springs, and I may make a DIY SAMA motor pod (I have a big ol’ chunk of lead I can use, or maybe a VPI Magic Brick). VPI’s are particularly good for straight-tracking arms, whose considerable mass wreaks havoc on the soft suspensions of light-weight tables as it moves across the record.

I got and have been using the Rock specifically because of it’s particularly appropriate design for use with Decca/London cartridges, which I have been using exclusively for decades. The designer/owner of Trans-Fi was until recently himself using a London Reference, and pics of that cartridge on his arm really caught my attention, and aroused my curiosity. I’ll put my Reference on the VPI/Trans-FI, and my Super Gold Mk.7 on the Rock/Zeta. That should make for an interesting comparison!

Vic sells an air supply to UK and Euro clients, and provides info on same to N. American users on the website. The design of the arm requires only a low-pressure system, unlike the ET and other air bearing arms. Less noise, no moisture---a big advantage.

I have to get over to Music Millennium and pick up Chris’ album on LP. They have the latest Rodney Crowell on LP too. They moved their LP area from the upstairs loft down onto the street-level floor a while back, and every time I go in the LP section is bigger than the time before. Maybe it’s not a fad, but a growing movement! Portland’s a pretty hip city, with a lot of young people wanting to be cool. LP’s are, at least for now, cool.