VPI Aries - either or question, please comment

I personally went with your option 2. I spoke to VPI extensively before making the decision. The new Aries 2 is better than Aries 1 with SDS, but you can still benefit from SDS which should yield better pace and bass. JMW 9 is more rigidly coupled to the base than JMW10/12 because there is no on-the-fly VTA. That rigidity translates to more details and ambience. Also, the bearing and low counter weight (standard on newest JMW9) make JMW9 the best sounding arm in the JMW family. This is not my word, this is from VPI. If you tweak the arm further by some resonance control device and replacing the internal wires, you will have a world class arm at a very low price.

BTW, Aries + JMW9 is called Aries Black Knight.

The new Aries actually have "Aries 2" logo on the table. The changes include all acrylic platter, inverted bearing, and lower power motor. They were made because the lesson learned from Scout. Notice the HR-X also has all acrylic platter and inverted bearing, the motor is smaller and runs at lower current. VPI realized by reducing the platter weight with full acrylic, they reduced resonance and at the same time they could lower the motor power which translated to lower vibration. You don't get that much more with Aries Black Knight when compares to Scout, but I don't like that clear platter on Scout and Aries Black Knight comes with dark grey platter like HR-X. Notice how Clearaudio has similar setup - all acrylic platter with inverted bearing.

So don't buy an used Aries with JMW10 when you can have a brand new Aries 2 and JMW 9 for the same price and better sound. Contact "zhusain" for a price quote, I got mine from him at a great price and he is a super nice guy.