Fremer does the HW-40
 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/...fatboy-tonearm

Mikey likes it. :thumbsup:
Wonder when they will offer the non-anniversary model with changeable armboard and what the MSRP will be.

Hi Glenn,

That review actually came out in the January 2020 issue of the print magazine. Very favorable review.

I talked (well, conversed by e-mail) with Harry W. early in the spring this year and it was his hope that the non-Anniversary HW-40 base model without pre-mounted arm and less dust cover would be out late this year or early next. I haven't heard or seen anything in print that would change that, but it's getting late in the year to get it out before Christmas.

As Fremer mentioned in the review, one of the important ways VPI were able to lower the cost of the HW-40 relative to the previous DD turntable was to buy a very large number of the expensive motors. So I would imagine they will have to sell some non-Anniversary HW-40s to get their investment out of that batch of motors.

The engineering and manufacturing now exists for the current HW-40 Anniversary, so it would not be a difficult matter to change the CNC code to cut a opening for a non-integral armboard in the top plate and and fabricate blank armboards for such a non-Anniversary model.

However, they've also mused about offering a DD Avenger and/or possibly offering a DD conversion kit for the Avenger, so some of those DD motors would no doubt be reserved for that project, should it come to fruition.

You might drop a line to Mat at VPI and see what he has to say.

I absolutely love my HW-40 Anniversary. It is everything Fremer discussed in his article and more. Superb sound quality and completely non-tweaky in operation and long-term stability and set-up. The vibration absorbing feet are the real deal and the 'table has stayed completely level for months -- all things I could never have said about my previous turntable using air bladder feet and VPI SDS with rim-drive two-motor/flywheel drive assembly.

Best regards,

Steve Z

It doesn't surprise me Glenn just as it wouldn't have surprised you.

To digress, it was interesting that HW said that it took two years to find the isolation he wanted.

I posted a follow up to one of HW's posts on Audio Asylum. In that follow up I urged HW to pay greater attention to isolation from the support surface. I told him that my experiments had indicated that the best direct drive type motors were quiet enough that the transmitted vibration from the support was a greater limitation.

That was about 8 years ago.

I still think that even the best direct drive motors of the early to mid 80s could benefit from more modern plinths and dedicated isolation. By that I mean designed for that model turntable not prepackaged.