Tell about your experience with your old Audio-Technica SL-1200s..

For the record the VPI HW40 is also a direct drive turntable.  With that said, direct drive or belt drive in high level turntables is not a big difference anymore.  I would not encourage anyone to base a decision based on turntable drive mechanism these days.  

I had a fully KAB modified SL1200 Mk II and it was a very satisfactory turntable in every way.   When introduced, I bought an SL1200GAE and the two sat side by side for perhaps 6 months, one set up for mono and the other for stereo.  The GAE is sonically superior, more open sounding, cleaner somehow, more revealing.  This difference is pretty obvious on all kinds of music, but was especially easy for me to hear listening to Diana Krall singing and accompanying herself on piano.  Not everyone knows it, but all of Diana's recordings are done live and unedited, meaning she does not do dubs or voice overs.  What you hear is what you get.  Piano is very demanding on vinyl because any amount of wow is noticeable.  This is where some people get confused into thinking direct drive is superior.  Really the most important thing is that the hole is centered in the record.  Generally CDs are better than vinyl for piano, but Sony/Columbia and ECM seem to know how to make superior sounding vinyl records when it comes to piano.  But I digress, both the older MkII and the newer G series play Diana well speed wise, with the G being quieter, cleaner and more open.  Anybody will be able to hear the difference.

Chakster you are correct, but let's put this into perspective even more.  An SL1200MkII with a full complement of KAB modifications and adjusted for inflation is probably comparable to at least any $1500 turntable on the current market.  It is still a decent turntable.  My GAE sits beside a VPI HW40, a $15,000 turntable currently.  And yes the VPI sounds better.  But the delta between it and the G is not as great as the difference between the G and the MkII.  I am not going to say that the G series is the best compromise between price and performance in high end turntables on today's market because I haven't compared it to every competitive offering in it's price range.  I am going to suggest, however, that it should be given serious consideration by anyone looking to invest in a new high performance turntable regardless of price.  It is quite simply that good.

Off topic, but Chakster asked what motor is used in the VPI HW40.  Brushless Direct ThinGap motor, manufactured by ThinGap LLC of Ventura, California.  This is a world class motor.  For those who might be interested let me share some additional experience that might be pertinent and of interest here.  I compared the VPI with the competitiveTechnics, an Air Force One, and a Technics on an aftermarket plinth using a Shroeder arm.  All were stellar.  The VPI sounded better than the Technics by way of the arm (I suspect), but the Technics arm is much easier to set up, a clear trade-off and depending on priorities a decision could go either way.  In the USA the VPI retails for over $3,000 less than the Technics.  The Technics on the custom plinth with the Shroeder arm sounded better than the VPI be a small margin, but retails for between $4k and $5K more than the Technics here in the USA of upwards of $8K more than the VPI.  The Air Force One sounded perhaps different than the VPI and with it's vacuum hold down probably would prove the most versatile with damaged or warped records.  Although in an attempt to distinguish between the VPI periphery ring and weight vs. the vacuum hold down several us gave up the attempt and called it a draw.  This on one record.  The Air Force One retails for about $3K more than the Technics/custom plinth/Shroeder setup.  At this point let me say that the differences between all three of these turntables were not great.  Very slight differences is sound, ear straining in fact. They are all wonderful and would make any record collector one happy camper.  Ergonomically, which is subjective of course, I personally think Technics is the best.  But, bringing this back to this thread, none of these very expensive turntables is significantly better in any particular way to my SL1200GAE.  In fact, the G series would be my first recommendation and my first choice for anyone looking for a first class turntable.  Yes there are better sounding turntables, but only marginally better and at great addional cost.  No less an authority than Mikey Fremer has said as much comparing turntables costing six figures.  Yes they sound better, a little bit, but only a little bit.  The more I think about it the more impressed I am with the G series.

Chakster, I am not going to debate with you, but I think your lens is broken, or perhaps it is that you are looking at things from a distant land.  A reasonable comparison here in the USA would be a Technics SL1000R, which retails for a bit over $18,000 and is competitive in every way with the VPI HW40, which placed into it's proper perspective cannot be viewed as an insane price at $15,000.  Staying with new, comparable equipment, the Technics SP10R in an aftermarket plinth with a Schroeder arm, as I compared previously because it was in my comparison and under serious consideration, retails here in the USA for almost $23,000.  Comparisons, taken in context and fairly show that these are all competitive, and quite expensive.  They are all first level in quality and performance and can be expected to last for a lifetime or two.  My interest is to convey that the Technics G series works as well, will last as long, and sound so good that only very top level associated systems are likely to reveal the very slight difference in sound quality.  I ask myself, is the difference worth the price?

Chakster wrote "If you personally can afford $15k turntable it’s fine, but in my opinion this is way too expensive for any turntable."
We can all learn how to do a better job of editing.  The sentence above is all you needed to say.  Interestingly enough I agree.
Take Care.

It is doubtful that the KAB fluid damper is a contributor to the difference.  I use one too on my GAE, but I prefer the Zupreme.  Like you said, not a big difference and probably comes down to taste.  I also had the same experience back in the day with my Mk II.