How much better is the Scoutmaster vs. Scout?

Much better PRAT and deeper bass. Blacker backgrounds. However if you're on a budget, I recommend allocating the difference between the Scout and Scoutmaster on the best cartridge, phono stage and isolation platform you can afford.Down the road you can keep the latter three items and swap in a better deck. BTW- When I owned a Scoutmaster, I used a Lyra Helikon cart and Ear 834p phono preamp. Interconnects were cardas golden ref. Awesome combo.

I went from the scout to the aries 3 but its the periphery ring thats the huge difference I wanted the better arm on the aries because of cartrige selection and yeh you gotta be careful with the ring but its worth it. No other turntable has the ring for this kind of price.

scoutmaster, and get the ring. without it you'll be forever complaining about warped records. plain and simple truth.

Thanks for all the replies. My Scout is only a couple weeks old so I was able to upgrade for just the difference in cost. I got the ring clamp as well. Can't wait!!

Congratulations! You're gonna love it.