Five Stars – What Hi-Fi? Magazine
New, Upgraded Version of VPI's Highly Acclaimed Prime Turntable
After the difficult year of 2020, the turntable experts at VPI decided to celebrate 2021 by giving the award winning VPI Prime a facelift and rebranding it as the Prime 21. The Prime 21 isn't a complete overhaul, since such an overhaul wasn't needed, considering the acclaim this high-performance turntable receives. Instead, VPI went with more of a refinement of existing virtues, based upon feedback from the customers, dealers, and audiophile press reviews.
The three main features of the Prime 21 are HW-40 feet for improved isolation and a lower table profile, a machined metal top plate for improved chassis bracing, and a 3D-printed gimbal arm as the standard arm. Taken together, these new upgrades provide better overall sonic performance from a 'table that's already known for outperforming far more costly models from other manufacturers.
Easy Set-up with Your Own Personal Expert
In addition to these three upgrades, VPI offers set-up help to make the entire experience much easier via an instructional video provided on a USB thumb drive. Plug it into your laptop or desktop computer (Windows, Mac, or otherwise), and you're ready to go with an expert at your side.
According to VPI, the process has been so well thought out that you can remove your turntable from the box, calibrate and connect it, and be ready to spin some vinyl in under twenty minutes. No special assembly skills are needed, and the tools you need are included in the box.
Improved Isolation
The HW-40 feet definitely give the Prime 21 the edge compared to the Prime. These feet have proven to be VPI's best isolators without breaking the bank. In fact, they are the same isolation feet used on VPI’s five-figure anniversary edition HW40 turntable and offer "supreme balance and dampening." The feet also give the Prime 21 a lower profile, which makes the whole appearance of the table clean and easier to fit into shelf space.
Improved Resonance Cancelling, Grounding, and More
The machined metal top plate of the Prime 21 is another well-considered improvement. VPI's engineers moved the bottom plate to the top of the chassis and then added more metal to wrap around the post braces. This makes the chassis more rigid for improved resonance cancelling. Also, all assemblies are mounted to the top plate, creating a more efficient ground that's shared among the components. The metal along the top has a structural benefit, too. It improves upon the build efficiency of the entire turntable.
Prime 21's Gimbal Arm is King
The Prime 21 comes with a very high-quality 3D-printed gimbal arm. Since VPI began offering its gimbal arm as a readily available option for its turntables in 2017, requests for the gimbal version have slowly but increasingly outpaced requests for the standard uni-pivot mount. Both uni and gimbal arms have their own unique sound signatures, but for the Prime turntable, gimbal has become king. Also, the gimbal mount makes cartridge installation easier, and it has a nicer feel for customers who are new to turntable use.
A Serious Synchronous Motor and 20-Pound Platter
Prime 21 uses a 300-rpm, 24-pole AC synchronous motor capable of high torque and quiet operation. For superior isolation, the motor is installed in a separate aluminum and steel machined assembly.
For unsurpassed speed stability, Prime 21 boasts a 20-pound damped platter machined from 6061 aluminum to an astonishing +/- .001” tolerance in a 39” circumference. The inverted bearing consists of a hardened stainless steel shaft plus a 60 Rockwell chrome hardened ball spinning in a phosphor bronze bushing and sitting on a PEEK thrust disc. The belt side load is placed at the center of the spinning bearing for zero 'teeter-totter' effects.
The motor pulley has an accuracy of +/- .0005” when leaving VPI's factory and has a wow and flutter rating of >0.1%, speed accuracy of >0.03% and rumble of >85db down.
