VPI Scoutmaster or Nottingham Space Deck...?

I had a spacedeck/spacearm and liked the sound, but be warned that the instructions for set up are the worst I've ever seen & to me the design of the arm was cheesy and made tweaking a real pain in the butt.
A spacedeck with a quality arm from a different manufacturer (Rega?) I think is a good option.
Haven't played with the scoutmaster, but assuming that the jmw 9 is similar to my jmw 10, it is an easy system to live with. Also you get a real manual & good customer support.
Part of analog is finding the sound you want and the other part is finding stuff that is not a pain in the arse to live with when it comes time for set up and tuning. IMHO.

4yanx - For what it is worth. Maybe someone could talk Tom Fletcher into putting out a little bit more documentation? Seems like it would be easy & would help sales & help folks enjoy the product.

Judy426 - "A serious analog discussion cannot include Rega tonearms." I don't own a Rega but a lot of folks sing their praises. Maybe it is a tonearm for lighthearted discussions :).

4yanx - No fussing intended. I thought better documentation might be a helpful suggestion for anyone who conversed with Mr. Fletcher. Sometimes vendors appreciate constructive feedback.
If you found the documentation to be thorough (Sp?) and appropriatly informative, great!
Happy listening.

FWIW. Whether or not a person wants to use the 'torture test' tracks is something to chew on. I've done it on three tables and cartridges and I'm not sure it tells anything that is related to sonic performance under reasonable or typical operating conditions.
After an expensive (for me anyway) cartridge went south on me prematurely, it sorta gave me that 'you dummy' feeling knowing that I had submitted it to visible long travel oscillation that is much worse than anything it will see during playback. The failure was probably just a coincidence, but I now am as delicate with cartridges as I can be.
Happy Listening!