Dodgealum,
Here's my $.02...
I think the emphasis on your TT placement is misplaced. You took great pains to isolate it from both footfalls and directly radiated energy from the speakers. While some airborne energies may be trapped and resonating within the enclosure, there are other factors limiting your analog reproduction and in my estimation they are much greater.
You've acquired a truly high performance digital source. It gets the very best from the media it plays and is not susceptible to the distortions that are so difficult to reduce when playing vinyl. The Esoteric's sonic clarity is exposing the flaws of your analog equipment. This direct comparison has sensitized you to its distortions and non-linearities and now they bother you. (They don't bother many people, including the "my $500 rig will outplay any digital source" crowd.)
Some of the weaknesses in your analog front end were mentioned or alluded to by others, so apologies if I repeat anybody's advice or ideas.
1. The motor controller supplied by VPI with the Scout is notoriously inadequate. That's why they sell the SDS (as mentioned above). Without a good controller you have no hope of speed accuracy, and speed accuracy is job one for a TT.
2. The Scout is driven by a rubber band (in effect). No drive mechanism containing elastic torque couplings can maintain constant speed when faced with a variable load (ie, stylus drag). That is not an opinion, it's basic engineering. My platter weighs more than your entire TT. It has several times more rotational inertia than your platter. Yet if I switch to an elastic belt like yours my sonics go instantly downhill. Transients are dulled, dynamics are softened, bass is limp, mids and highs are smeared. All the tweaking in the world will not eliminate the flaws inherent in an elastic drive train.
3. Rubber(y) material in contact with a TT (especially the platter) is a sonic no-no. When an elastic material encounters vibrations (intra-platter resonances) it temporarily contracts (changes shape) to absorb the energy. Being elastic, however, it wants to return to its resting shape. When it does so it releases the stored energies back into the platter - shifted in time, frequency and amplitude. These vibrations reach the stylus through the record. Result: sonic mud.
4. Your tonearm, like any unstabilized unipivot, is incapable of fully performing a tonearm's primary job: holding the cartridge squarely over the center of the groove. It relies on the reaction to groovewall pressures to maintain azimuth stability. This puts undue pressure on the cartridge suspension. Result: reduced dynamics, slowed pace, a serious decrease in both low level detail and HF extension. Since the entire arm/cartridge responds to unequal sidewall pressures by making reactive microscopic azimuth changes, crosstalk is increased and always varying. Result: bloated images and poor L/R soundstaging.
I could go on but you get my drift: your present TT and arm have inherent weaknesses and your new digital rig has exposed them. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy them, but you shouldn't expect them to outplay a top class source. That just isn't going to happen - and it's all your fault for buying such a nice digital spinner! ;-)
My guess is you'll have to spend about $5-7K for a TT and arm that will reduce distortions and non-linearities enough to roughly match the Esoteric (note: none of the choices you listed addresses the problems I mentioned). You could spend a lot more to really beat the Esoteric if you choose. Whether you should is up to you of course.
