How does the VPI Aries II stand up to current mid priced tables?

ozzy62-

If your table doesn't come with a Soundsmith Counterintuitive, it makes adjusting the counterweight easier for tracking/azimuth adjustment.  Not a must have, but eliminates a lot of setup grief.

A fresh belt is another inexpensive thing to consider.

No more neurosis enabling from me. Happy Listening!

The Aries !! is a quite good table.  The arm can be a bit tweaky, but once set up (not THAT hard), it can be very satisfying.  

The weakness in the table is the unipivot arm.  Gimballed arms seem to perform better, but the JMW arm will work well when it's set up properly.  It does like AT OC9/II carts.  Probably other OC9-series carts as well.

Use the Walker Speed Control. It works great on my VPI Scout II. Love VPI. The upgrade path on these is an audiophile tweeters dream.

The Aries 2 is a good table, but the cost to upgrade it with a current model platter and/or tonearm is cost prohibitive and would have been better served by investing in a more up to date model. A speed controller would be a worth while update. 

Just to ad to add to the conversation, in my speaking with both Harry and Matt at VPI when I was inquiring about moving from my VPI Aries 1 table to one of their newer ones  they both first asked what platter I had on mine and and the serial number, after that they said to keep the Aries 1 table as it has the best platter and combination of items that they cannot duplicate today and if so the table would cost in the $9-$12k range.