I’ve had my share of VPI tables and have upgraded arms within the brand BUT never got to a fat boy—only to a hot rod version of the 3D gimble. That said, in my experience the two most significant changes you can make sonically is going 3D from aluminum and going gimbal from unipivot. IME the 3D arm provides a much smoother and more natural sound than the aluminum tube. This is very easy to hear and welcome. The gimbal arm is easier to handle but does not extract as much detail from the grooves, leaving some realism on the table. If it were me and I had the table in the pictures you provided I’d slap the Kleos on the existing arm and see what happens before changing the arm. Part of the fun is in the learning so see what a nice cart does compared to your Ortofon Quintet Red which is vastly inferior to the Lyra.
VPI Fatboys versus others in its' tonearm weight class.
In their never ending quest to push fiscally responsible audiophiles into bankruptcy, site members have succeeded in making me consider a new gimbaled tonearm to keep a Lyra Kleos company on a VPI Classic 2 turntable. Dover, on my previous thread, pointed out most other tonearm options would be limited on the Classic 2 short of major surgery to it. So here I am considering keeping the tonearm upgrade in the VPI family. Their gimbaled Fatboy, will readily fit onto the VPI Classic 2’s tonearm base without any fuss.
Here’s my question after reading up on the Fatboy. How does the Fatboy compare with other tonearms in it’s $4500 price range? Is it about average in that class, which would be acceptable, or is it much better or worse than its’ peers?. If you.ve had any chance to compare the Fatboy with other tonearms in the same price range, what is your impression? I don’t want to spend that much money on one if the consensus is that it’s at the bottom of its class, which hopefully it isn’t.
I haven’t had an opportunity to listen to one, or any other tonearm as expensive. I would likely need to arrange a two day road trip to accomplish that. In lieu, I’m soliciting your impressions as to whether the Fatboy is worth that much compared to others in it’s price range. I guessing it will be okay, but don’t want to spend $4500 if the consensus is it’s at the bottom of its’ class just because it fits easily on my turntable. So what do you think? I’m all ears.
I’m not looking here for alternative solutions to a Fatboy. That was the topic of my recent thread, I’m only soliciting your impressions of the Fatboy compared to other similarly priced tonearms, and why I should or shouldn’t take a chance on it. Thanks all,
Mike