turntable upgrade

Buy used if you can. You will suffer little to zero depreciation on a good table such as a Scout. You also get a good upgrade path w/the Scout. IMHO it's the best of the choices you mentioned. Others I'd recommend thinking about are the Scheu w/Morch arm and the Nottingham Spacedeck.
Think about how many folks buy 1-3 yr old cars at 1/2 or 2/3 the price of a new car. It's the same deal w/this stuff. Just be careful who you buy from, and ask questions first about condition, etc. If you transact internationally, you run much more risk, even if you use paypal. Domestically, paypal is something most of us are comfortable with, and have used successfully. Cheers,
Spencer

used analogue components are among the best buys in audio. for your budget you can go used and be set for a long, long time.

Dear friend: I agree with Spencer about second hand TT. here it is some links that you could choose:

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1142666180

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1142972929

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1143343842

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1143764757

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1145029454

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Get a used table. Well Tempered are very nice. If tour handy it will be a nice unit. Can be had for 1K 1.5K Good buy. Oracle also has nice tables. Used is the way to go.

I have seen many VPI HW19 tables for sale. They are well built, easy to set up, and large enough for just about any arm configuration.