VPI TNT Turntables

Not that this helps the OP but ...

The discussion never resolved the question raised by phoenixengr: why is there an improvement in sound when using a flywheel? Seems to me a likely cause is motor isolation. The flywheel adds a buffer against vibrations. Those VPI motors are noisy in my experience. I found that moving to a teres verus motor on my Aries 1 - essentially making it an idler wheel tt - improved the sound dramatically. So much so that I can't see ever going back to a belt drive.

The VPI Rim Drive had similar strong reviews but they seem to have mothballed it.

The problem is not just having the motor in the plinth. Vibrations are transmitted through the belt itself, and they cause all sorts of distortion. I went to great lengths to isolate the motor from the plinth on my VPI table, and I used two different motors, one much "quieter" than the other. I still had a drastic improvement when I went to the (much smoother) Teres motor and ditched the Hurst motor/belt drive configuration altogether.  

Don_c55 - I'd be interested to see you design and market a successful line of high-end audio products. Not so easy. VPI has used cheaper materials because they have to. My Aries 1 turntable is a good example - they used real wood in the construction of the plinth, and made a fantastic turntable. But it was too expensive to produce that way, so in the later iterations they used different (yes, cheaper) materials. Harry Weisfeld said somewhere that the Aries 1 would be an $8000 TT if they sold it today. Nothing wrong with an $8000 turntable but that's a pretty small market niche.  

I admit that VPI marketing isn't always effective. I think they hyped the 3D tonearm for the wrong reasons - the coolness of a new manufacturing technology - rather than its sonic improvements. That contributed to the feeling that the new tonearm was a gimmick, when in fact - or in my opinion - it actually sounds better than the metal ones.  

But that said, I don't think VPI is declining or veering into cheapness. On the contrary, they seem to be weathering their recent transitions quite well.  Musical enjoyment is highly subjective, and therefore "irrational" if you want to put it that way.  That's the beauty and the intrigue of the hobby, not the 'problem'.  

My $.02, anyway.  :)