Originally spotted in Munich at the High End Show, we’ve been anxiously waiting to hear the VPI Fatboy tonearm. VPI dropped the Fatboy details before AXPONA in a press release, so I was jazzed to find Mat Weisfeld outside the Gershman Acoustics Room.
I asked Mat which VPI room I should listen to, and the he declared “This one of course!” He wasn’t kidding. As I walked inside room 710, I was greeted by a VPI Titan turntable loaded with the production 12-inch VPI Fatboy gimbal tonearm.
I was familiar with the unipivot version from Munich, but the gimbal version was gorgeous, machined to perfection. Pick your poison, you can’t go wrong with either version. Exciting since almost any current VPI customer can upgrade their arm.
I asked Matt to tell me about what inspired the Fatboy. He told me a story of an early customer who purchased a VPI Titan turntable. That thing is a beast of beauty. But the customer passed on a piece of feedback. “Mat, I love the Titan, but your tonearm needs to go the gym….” Hmm, Mat at first didn’t know what to think of that, but as they developed the Fatboy they understood what that early customer was asking for. Mat was happy to report that his Titan customer is extremely pleased with the new arm. A little protein powder, a few extra push ups, and boom the Fatboy is ready to kick your butt.
The VPI Titan was driving a beautiful VAC Statement 450 Stereo amplifier into Gershman Acoustics Posh Speakers from my hometown of Toronto, Ontario.
I’ve had a real crush on tubes recently…
The VAC gear was driving the Gershman loudspeakers with ease. I wasn’t familiar with Gershman, so I was interested to give them an extended listen. They feature an Accuton ceramic midrange, fancy Furutech wiring and connectors, and Gershman-designed aluminum-alloy double-magnet woofers.
I was intrigued by how flexible the speaker was to be adjusted for time alignment. The upper module can be moved in small increments.
As well as the ability to adjust the feet to change the angle of the speaker for both optimizing time alignment and the listening position.
I stayed longer then usual in room 710 as I kicked back and enjoyed the sound. Maybe it was the Titan, or the VAC electronics, or those Posh Speakers, but anyway you slice it, it was a well-assembled system that caught my attention. Definitely some products that I want to pay a lot more attention to.
–Mohammed
More details on the VPI Fatboy gimbal and unipivot arm can be found here
