How high/thick is the "weigh platform" on your new digital scale? Many of the cheaper scales now being sold as tracking force guages for turntables have very thick platforms which will not give an accurate read (the higher the platform, relative to a real record on the platter, the higher the reading will be, hence the need to reduce VTF on the arm to 1.5 to get a 1.75 gram reading on the scale). If the weigh platform is around 8 mm. to 1 cm. or more in height (quite common with a lot of these cheaper scales being marketed), it is quite possible that you could be getting readings with this kind of a discrepancy.
tracking force problem
I have a rega p9 tt with the rb1000 arm and rega ELYS 2 cartridge. The tt was set up by a rega dealer and the tracking force was set on the arm at the 1.75 g setting (recommeded for that cart). I recently bought a digital tracking force gauge and I had to adjust the arm to the 1.5 g level to get a 1. 75 reading on the digital reader. In short, is this normal....i expected minor tweaking only.....should i believe the digital gauge or the settings on the rega arm? Also, does this even matter is .25 g not even matter anyway?