Four decades of innovative turntable design turned out to be just the beginning. As it enters its fifth decade, VPI Industries continues to elevate the art and enjoyment of analog playback. From its early beginnings under owner/designer Harry Weisfeld and his groundbreaking HW Series of turntables, to his son Mat's ascendancy to company President and role overseeing the next generation of engineering, VPI remains synonymous with analog superiority.

VPI's new "Experience House" also houses their learning center where dealers from around the world go through a painstaking process to build a VPI Turntable. Here, VPI's Jan Kulyk instructs on the creation of their VPI Prime Scout.

In recent years, VPI's dealer network has undergone a massive rehab project centered around a related message: VPI builds solid, American-made products for music lovers of every stripe to enjoy for years. It's something we've always known. Music Direct was among the first dealers in the country to be Certified as a VPI Dealer, with product on display in our listening rooms (including the wildly popular Prime Series to the flagship Titan turntable, with the latest-generation Fat Boy tonearm) as well as salespeople and techs attending immersion and factory training to help increase brand awareness in new ways.

VPI President Mat Weisfeld presents Music Direct Hardware Buyer Aaron Wing with their first-ever "Ambassador Award" for providing the highest level of customer service.

Music Direct Hardware Buyer Aaron Wing, along with our Showroom Sales/Analog Set-Up Technician Dave Freeman, recently traveled to VPI's new Experience House, where the pair shared their experiences with other retailers in a relaxed, classroom setting. "To be a Certified VPI tech and salesperson is very exciting," Dave said. "However, it's really about the community that VPI and its dealers have created. The camaraderie between myself and our peers was more about enjoying music, and I think that's what VPI has done with its improvements over the years." From modular construction to a bold foray into electronics with the Voyager and Cliffwood phono preamplifiers, the VPI story, as Dave gleefully put it, "will be around for generations to come."

VPI's rooster of thanks: Certification papers, awards...We're mighty proud of our decades-long relationship with our customers and VPI.

As part of the two-day training, dealers were also awarded for their sales and successes in carrying the VPI brand. Music Direct took home two awards – one for excellence in sales (Platinum Dealer), as well as a special award recognizing Music Direct as a Brand Ambassador for the industry, with particular emphasis on a longstanding relationship dating back to our own beginnings as a retailer. As VPI's Mat Weisfeld said on creating the award, "With Bes as its Ambassador, the story of Music Direct as a solid partner for all these years is just great, and it's why we awarded them with this, our first-ever category." Aw, shucks.