Anyone NOT like the sound of VPI?

First thing I'd be suspicious of is the obvious, you are comparing a moving coil cartridge to a very high output moving magnet. Are you sure the phono preamplification chain is optimized for the new cartridge? Or perhaps, you just don't care for the sound of these particular cartridges or inexpensive moving coils in general. I'm using a moving magnet Garrott Optim FGS and have used several other moving magnet designs. None suffer from any hint of lean midbass.

Josephtorres brought up another aspect of Scout ownership that's not been discussed yet. The Scout is VERY dependent on a good platform of some sort to flesh our it's sonic signature IMO. I'd forgotten that when I first set up my Scout and listened to it, it did lack some mid bass weight and disappointed me a bit. At present, I'm using a thick maple platform which totally cured the perceived lack of balance. The Gingko is another route I'd definitely consider. All this said, the Scout still didn't sound bright without a platform. It still sounds like you've not optimized the cartridge for the rest of your system. What sort of phono preamplification and phono interconnects are you using?

Well, I'm not familiar with the Pro-ject so I've got nothing relevant to say about that. The fact that your vinyl rig "sounds completely different" from your cd makes me suspect the cartridge and/or preamp are your problem though. When I play my vinyl rig, I've occasionally had to stop and look up to see whether or not the turntable is spinning because it sounds so similar to my Marantz Sa11S1. From what others have said in past threads, I doubt you're going to be very happy with a target wall mount shelf either unless you replace the mdf shelf with something like a Neuance drop-in replacement. Mdf sounds like mud from my experience under the VPI. I know that it seems hard to believe that the support substrate can have such a substantial impact, you'll just have to try this for yourself and see. Still, I wouldn't let this aspect sidetrack you from the bigger issue, optimizing the phono preamp chain and getting a cartridge that works better with the VPI arm.

Madfloyd, just Google "VPI SDS" and check it out. The third hit will take you to Audiophilia's review after it's release.