I have years of experience with the Aries 1 deck and very little w/ the Classic series, but I continue to believe that the original Aries deck (properly rigged) is one of the best kept secrets in the audio world. I still regret selling it, mainly because I got tired of the WAS (wandering azimuth syndrome) w/ the JMW tonearm. If there is a difference compared to the Classic 3 (aside from those related to the tonearm), IMO they are going to be quite minor.
Original VPI Aries vs VPI classic 3
I currently have an original Vpi Aries and it works just fine. I was just thinking about upgrading tables and I have been looking at the Vpi classic 3. I'm wondering if this is worth the upgrade. I can get around 1800.00 for my table so I'm looking at spending about 4000.00 to get the classic 3.