You will have a very hard time auditioning the Clearaudio Accurate because it has been long out of production. You will have to listen to the Clearaudio Goldfinger that is in the current market and in production.
I keep up to date on the VPI front and the developments. I actually was JUST talking to Mike at VPI the other day (sometime last week) about these very things.
See, I auditioned a VPI Classic in my system and was super impressed with it. It had good PRaT and sounded very open. What I noticed that it didn't have the huge bass quality and gigantic soundstage that the VPI TNT 6 has. In fact, if I had not already had the TNT, I would have probably gotten a Classic 3 which was the subject of my discussion with Mike at VPI.
I asked him point blank if the Classic 3 is something I should get to REPLACE the TNT 6 and he said absolutely not. The current economics of building the TNT would just NOT work in the current market which is why they came up with a good all in one design as in the Classic 3.
In fact, the HRX was also developed back in the day because the TNT 6 was getting too expensive due to rise in raw material cost (increasing prices of quality acrylic and rising prices of oil which is used for acrylic). They came up with the HRX with the acrylic, aluminum, acrylic plinth to keep costs low. In fact, he said, if they had to develop the current HRX motor in todays market, they could NOT price it below $3000.
Bottom line is, cost of manufacturing is going up all around. Things aren't the same like before in this hurting economy. Very high end sales were just not happening so something like the Classic 3 is just what VPI needed. An excellent sounding table at a price the current market can handle. The fact that it sounds amazing is just a testament to their engineering quality and standards.
Personally, I will be giving the Classic 3 aluminum platter a run in my system against the HRX acrylic platter and doing a comparison of the sound. According to VPI, neither is really better than the other as both are fantastic sounding. One might be more "agreeable" in a given system than the other. There isn't a universal upgrade across the board for either platters. Just have to try and see.
Hope that is some good information for you. If I was looking for a high end turntable in this current market, I would buy the VPI Classic 3 in a heartbeat. An all American made quality product with tech support that is always a phone call away. Try calling the manufacturers of other tables and see if you can ever talk to someone who actually engineers the product and gives honest opinions. NOT HAPPENING
