Hi KJL, I have the Scoutmaster with the speedcontrol,ring and centre weight, that I purchased as a package about a year ago.The speed control alone has a huge impact on your listening pleasure...I was looking at buying the big motor at some point after reading about it in TAS. However I just learned about the wire upgrades. Nordost Valhalla wire for the 9 and box at a $200. price with trade in of your 9 and box should be a stupid good upgrade. I am going to hold off on the motor upgrade and get this done for sure...Or break down and get the redesigned JMW 9 arm and rewired box....Two years ago if I was in a audio store, I wouldnt have given a turntable a second glance no matter the price range...Yes s.a.c.d.and c.d.s was the future in my mind,pure convenience of use,period.I bought the huge sony s.a.c.d. 777 in 2001 and later had the clock changed along with new caps ect...Outstanding sound once the upgrades burnt in...But something was still missing in the music I was listening to.What stood out for me was vocals along with some instruments that did not seam right at all.While shopping for a new pair of speakers and amplification,the room I picked at the store had the top line Merlins and a pair of Dynaudio special 25s.Atma-Sphere 60 watt monos along with their mp3 model pre with phono.A Meridian G8 c.d. player, Cardas cables and Shunyata power cords ect.Now in this mix was a VPI Scout with a Dynavector 20 ? cartridge. I thought ,what is this doing here mixed with the likes of this company? The salesman left me in the room to listen all I wanted.The Meridian player was fabulous! I thought.One of the c.d.s I brought along with me was Harry Belafonti live at Carginie hall.I saw they had a copy in vinyl in the room ,I got ahold of the salesman and asked to listen to the little VPI...Well,there it was,what I was craving,though the little VPI only had a hint of it .It was there...Harmonic structure in the music along with more natural sounding vocals ,far better.I went home and thought about what I heard.Big price differants from the Scout and the Meridian G8.At the time the store was about to take delivery of the Scout Master.I was back acouple of times to decide on new speakers and amps.I picked the Dynaudio special 25s and Atma-sphere monos.I really had some thinking to do here on concidering changing formats ,I could not afford both.I checked out other c.d./s.a.c.d. players ,all price ranges set up in some systems were the speakers alone cost more then my first house did.Anyway vinyl is for me all the way.I am very happy with my Scoutmaster ,having the option for a new arm and box wired with Nordost Valhalla is exciting indeed.
