Best way to upgrade from a MMF9

Bombaywalla,
Thank you for posting your Nott'/SDS/VPI experiences. I got slammed on VA for expressing this view, despite the widespread evidence. Good to know someone has heard it firsthand.

Agree w/ Dougdeacon re. the Nott being a superior TT vs. the VPI. I have friend who owns a Spacedeck/Spacearm/Benz L2. I have heard his TT when he used to own the OL Silver 250 Mk1 w/ the Benz L2. Fantastic sound, which was considerably better than the MMF5 I had back then. Later this friend added a VPI SDS & found that it made no improvement on his Spacedeck so he promptly sold it!
My other friend has a (used) VPI Aries (original). He has had to add the Neuance shelf, dropped counterweight and VPI SDS to make the TT sing. I think that still more perf. can be squeezed out from the Aries. The original Aries retail price is pretty darn high & what a mediocre sounding TT it is in stock form! A total rip off & a shame for that price!
I'm sorry to say that I'm not a VPI fan. I think that releasing a TT & then immediately/shortly offering upgrades to it is a sign of bad design & not giving the product full thought for its initial design i.e. the product put out is not the best that VPI could design. I think that VPI should design a product that is the very best for that price point & only sunstantially later offer any mods if needed. There are imported TTs that cost less than an equivalent VPI + these imported TTs don't need upgrades to sound their best!!
BTW, my new Bluenote TT & my friend's used VPI Aries cost about the same when purchased resp. by us - $100 or $200 difference. Since then he has added all the above mentioned tweaks to the TT while I have done nothing similar. I still think that my Bluenote beats his VPI Aries!
I expressed *my* opinions. Take it FWIW. As always, YMMV.

I'd also consider a Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm ($2500) + a suitable cartridge. I haven't heard one myself, nor a VPI for that matter, but my money would be on the Nott'. Many Scout/ScoutMaster owners have ended up adding expensive motor controllers or even replacing the motor before they were satisfied with the sound. That adds another $500-1000 to the cost. I've never heard of a Nott' owner needing or considering that.

Look very hard at a VPI Scout or ScoutMaster. At $2400.00 w/o cart. the ScoutMaster kicks major butt and is super easy to live with(no fussy tweaking every time you want to spin wax). The Scout at $1600.00 leaves a ton of room for Cart. money AND a ton of new music to spin. I have a Rega Planar 25 and love it, but the VPI destroys that fine table out of hand. Waiting to upgrade to a Scoutmaster myself. Good Luck and enjoy the MUSIC.

Hi John,

I am a MMF7 owner. I am not certain of the arm on your MMF9 but if it is similar to the MMF7's Pro-ject arm, which I think it is, then there is a definite limit to the cartridges that you can use, i.e. forget about any of the low compliance MC models because the effective mass of the arm is too low. I believe that the Music Halls can accept any tonearm that is based on the Linn design so that may be a way of getting to better cartridges. Now it is my understanding, (and I will defer here to TWL, DougDeacon, and others with more experience) that the biggest sonic difference will come from a table upgrade. That would also give you a way to change tonearms.

Or, as Jrd351 says you could just keep what you have and be happy.

As for me, I'm saving my pennies for a complete upgrade.

And upgrading will certainly improve your neighbor's pleasure too!

Having gone from a similar level to about a $6K rig I agree with Twl.

A new TT in the $3k range can make a very big improvement.

keep what you've got and enjoy.