Scout 1.1 Tonearm Comparison

B117:

I wouldn't be so quick to judge on this one. The JMW9 is considered by some to be the weak link in the original Scout. The gimbled arm is a completely different design and, from what I understand, an upgraded version of the one found on the Traveller (i.e. better quality bearings). Also, the 1.1 has a different bearing and platter so the old and new Scout are fairly dissimilar. Thanks Mike for chiming in---did you have a chance to compare your Scout with the original version? If not, how would you compare the 1.1 with the other tables you mentioned?

Regarding Mike S and his comments above,
It's interesting to note that Groupies are alive and well in the music reproduction arena and the folks at VPI certainly have there fair share of them. That being said,Buconero117 hit the nail on the head. I believe If the gimbled arm finds its way onto the Scout then VPI has surly "jumped the shark".

Why don't we wait until we hear from someone who has actually heard the new arm, or better yet someone who has compared the two?

According to VPI's Facebook page, they feel that the gimballed is better for some carts (MIs from Grado IIRC) than the unipivot arms. They promised more details on their webpage at some point.

I absolutely love my Aries table with the JMW 10.5i arm. Even though I've been into VPI for years, I find their model lines and upgrades a tad confusing (and sometimes a bit on the expensive side - $1200 for a SDS?!). The sheer number of platter & arm upgrades, along with the various tweaks is a bit bewildering, especially for new customers.