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VPI 40th Anniversary Table After Warranty Support Question

Hey guys. I am new here and I wanted to bring up a "thought question/experiment". While talking with a friend about turntables, I brought up the new VPI 40th. My friend mentioned a few interesting points that made me think before jumping on it.

The main question is "What will the after warranty service be like?". Will VPI continue to support this table after the 5 year warranty and for how long? This product is a limited run item so it brings up the question of will there still be parts or replacements for it after 6, 10 or even 20 years? Would it even make sense to stock extra direct drive motors for that long? Would there be applicable "aftermarket" options?

We can reference the Traveler turnable, which started selling in 2012-2013 but discontinued not even 5 years after, as a cautionary tale. Other members on this site have tried to get their Traveler tonearms repaired through VPI only to be told that they cannot be fixed because there are not replacement parts to fix it.. A replacement "used" arm would cost $500, almost the same amount as the resell value of the table itself. This also shows a severe depreciation in value (about 50% drop from MSRP) for the Traveler. In a broader light, are people still able to acquire parts, like the bearing, at a reasonable price for older tables (HRX, TNT, Aries, Classic, HW-19 or HW-17/27) from VPI?
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/vpi-turntable-repair

The other question refers to the reliability of the table. Even with a 5 year warranty, nobody wants to have to use it. VPI is pretty well known for "1st gen" problems. Easy examples are again the Traveler, but also newer products like the ADS,the Nomad, and even the Prime tables. And a constantly revolving issue is the 3D tonearm, with the most recent issue being leakage.
http://vpiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9674
http://vpiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10772
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/need-help-and-advice-on-a-vpi-3d-arm

With a limited run table like the 40th, it would be pretty costly to redesign a V2 version. Have they performed an extensive quality check? Or will problems start to arise 1 year after? And if problems can hold out past the 5 years, how costly would it be to the user? Or would there be no parts for it?

Similar, but obscure discussions were brought up about the Voyager Preamplifier, which I have only seen article reviews of but no customer/ end user feedback. Any information on is also limited to 2017, nothing in 2018.
http://vpiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9514

So what are your thoughts on the new VPI turntable?



magmadster

Showing 1 response by magmadster

magmadster OP
1 posts
 
@testpilot
If we look at Sears, a company that survived for over 130 years, it filed for bankruptcy last year. Now it may not be a proper comparison from public company to mom-pop shop, but it doesn’t mean a successful company in the past can’t fail or make poor decisions in the future, even with 40 years under their belt. Also for an item marked $15000, shouldn’t the quality of it be kink free or at least very minor? To be in the high-end/specialty market, should the standards and QC be proportionally higher?


Edit: Remember, this is a thought experiment. A lot of people probably know the pros about it, but I am playing devil's advocate to bring out the cons.
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