UPGRADE FROM VPI SCOUTMASTER

I am another former VPI owner who thinks they are good, not great. I am sure that the new DD with "Fatboy" gimbled arm at 30K is a great deck. But at the price points of everything below that deck, there are better alternatives. I have said it before and I will say it again-the VPI unipivot arms are a pain to set up and even when set up properly they are not great. VPI has never gotten vibration control down to a science; their footers look fancy but are pos, their base/plinths are haphazardly designed for looks and not based on science, and to top it all off, they have a penchant for cobbling together a new design every six months based on the "let's take the platter from bin number 5 and combine it with the plinth from bin number 4 and the tonearm from bin number 2 and call it this cute name". They ought to be called VPEye. They are designed in my humble opinion for people who don't know better and shop with their eyes, much like successful speaker manufacturers. At the end of the day, managing motor noise and having a well thought-out, precision, easily adjustable great-sounding tonearm are paramount. Once you have had the pleasure of using a really top-grade tonearm, well, there is no going back. With VPEye, the tonearm adjustments are awkward to access at best, the tiny set screws are easily stripped, the antiskate is a joke, and there is something very peculiar about the unipivot design in which the sound just never gets to the great level. It is virtually impossible to extract the true potential of the better MC cartridges on the market with a VPEye unipivot arm. 
Since I am on a rant/roll, try replacing the motor pulley sometime. What a joke. Your expensive "precision lathed motor pulley" will likely take so much force to get onto the motor shaft that your motor will be damaged. And then it won't even spin without some wobble. That was my experience when I tried to replace my motor pulley on my Prime in order to use two belts rather than one. I had all kinds of other similar issues with any attempt to replace parts. Teutonic precision is missing. VPEye uses a host of vendors to machine the various parts their McDonald's McNuggets are conglomerated with that often just don't comply with spec. 

I have a good local friend who’s a smart, cautious guy. He’s owned a Scoutmaster for some years now. He’s very thoroughly explored the Scoutmaster-to-Prime option, and conclusively settled on sticking with the Scoutmaster. From what I understand of his findings - the S.M. is a solid table, and there’s no reason to execute a potentially lateral move to the Prime. I think if his findings were at all in favor of the Prime, he’s have done it. But he did upgrade to the 3D arm, and likes it. Seems to be a good arm for MC carts - but I told him to consider the Gimbal fatboy if he wants to run Koetsu in the future (they need good rigid bearings).

When it’s time for the REAL upgrade a few years from now, he’ll certainly be exploring other brands too (e.g. Brinkmann).

Easy. Get a Technics SL-1200G and replace the platter pad with an Oracle platter pad.

The Technics is more speed stable than the VPI (being one of the most speed stable turntables made at any price), and employs six different damping mechanisms, including a damped platter, quite unlike the older SL1200s. If you don't like the arm, which is pretty competent, you can replace that with a Triplanar and have state of the art. Not bad price-wise, which is why Technics has most of the high end turntable industry shaking in their boots. We used to sell a very nice turntable (Atma-Sphere 208, which looks like the old Empire 208 but with a highly damped platter and plinth) but IMO the Technics is a better machine.

I have a Superscoutmaster/3D 2nd pivot/Classic Platter/replaced the feet with Bearpaws (very large brass cones).....haven't heard better.  Was just listening to Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed, and enjoying the lyrics.