If I were to replace my VPI Airies1 with a 4k or so budget?

Thank for this.  Indeed I have told on several accasions that the Aries is going to very hard to beat without spending a lot more money.  I have wanted to call VPI to ask them about upgrading the tonearm- i wasn't sure it is possible but then again I have no real reason to think that.  On top of that I could have tonearm rewired with better quality wire (nordost etc)

If I were to actually change anayway Ithink a Sota would have to be on the list.  Yje 2 above I was asking about were new offerings I am less familiar with I was curious about.  In other words, my search not be restricted to those.

Another friend of mine suggested that if a really wanted to make a change and improve the sould too he would think that nothing lessthan a Bardo would do....and that one is a fantabulous amount of cash- even used.

Thanks for all this- very interesting.  I should have added to all of this that . I also the VPI SDS- so unless the Sota controller is so much better I'd probably stick with the SDS, no?

@ millercarbon
You raise an interesting point re the phono.  I assumed that I phono board addition to an integrated might be more cost effective that a whole new separate box and that that would imply that for the same price it might be a little better.  Sounds like I have it backwards.  That said I have afriend who owns an Aesthetix Janus preamp and he suggests it is in most cases superior external phono's within the same general price range.  I have much less experience with phono's than with other equipment but I will say his vinyl system sounds amazing.  Anyway, thank for raising the point- maybe Aesthetix is an exception considering who Jim White is and should porbably rethink some of my assumptions.

Also, I think that if I am going to go integrated I am going to look for something that has a higher quality volume control than the Blue Velvet- as good as this potentiometer is I have heard in a head to head comparison what a better volume control can do.

Thanks everyone for the very interesting posts.  My impression that unless I plan to make a major investment (as suggested mulveling) I should stock to the Aires.  
As for the speed control I'll stick with the SDS and maybe focus on an arm upgrade- and/or a phono upgrade.

So in terms of the latter, the Herron does seem to be a very piece of equipment.  Assuming I were to think about something in $1k range (which would leave me $$$ leftover for the arm) what to you reckon is good and would match well with the Lyra Delos.  My currrent phono is a Trigon Vanguard II which at the team was better most other phono stages up to around $600-$700 with Trigon beinng nonetheless being about $500.  I did a round of comparisons at sound by Singer in Ny wau back when.
I think I should be able to achieve a significant step -up with something around $1k used, no?