VPI upgrade?

I almost never agree with mijostyn but this time I do in part and not in part. He is right, the VPI unipivot arm is a total pain for the average schmo, though my trusted set-up expert Brian Walsh says he can make them sound very good and he has no problem with them. Where I disagree with him is on the suggestion that you spend a lot of money on a VPI gimbaled arm and $5,500 or so on a Windfeld Ti or similar combined with a $2500 drive unit. I have about a dozen cartridges ranging in price from $1,000 to $9,000 and the qualitative difference, while real, is not proportionate to the cost compared to differences in tonearm and tonearm wiring quality. So I do agree with upgrading your tonearm (or moving to what imho is a better turntable/arm) but I would not sink more money on a VPI arm and a $5,500 cartridge. 

Where does VPI go wrong? I think they have never figured out how to engineer there decks to sound lively and not plodding/boring. They appeal to the eye but the high mass platter, unsophisticated bearing and low to mid-mass plinths are just not a good synergistic combination. The belt drive motors are nothing special and every few years VPI changes them. VPI is an enigma-on the one hand the decks are built to last compared to a Pro-Ject and on the other hand they are largely kluged together. The only VPI deck I would consider owning is an HW-40 and even then it would be with a non-VPI arm. But that is just me. 

There are lots of good turntables on the market but one I would take a hard look at is the Pure Fidelity Encore with the Origin Live Zephyr arm. 

I’ve owned three VPI tables over the years and for the money a Scout with the original unipivot arm loaded with an inexpensive cartridge like an AT OC 9 is a no brainer recommendation. The problem is that when you go higher up in the line the engineering and parts quality limitations become more pronounced. So I wouldn’t suggest staying with the line if you want a real jump in performance. I’d second @fsonicsmith suggestion and look at the Pure Fidelity line—very well designed with top quality parts and sonics. The OL arms are truly best in class at the lower end of the line so you can really end up with much better SQ for your dollars invested than upgrading the VPI

You can get the Prime 21 with a gimballed arm installed at no extra cost.  The bass response with the gimballed arm is amazing!.  But if you want to change cartridges, you are better off with unipivot.  You can get a separate arm with unipivot and mount a second cartridge on it (perhaps a mono) and make an easy swap.

I got a used Prime about a year ago. Amazing TT. I went with a Hana ML cart. 

I have a used Prime Signature in Rosewood with JMW 3-D printed uni-pivot arm. J.R. Bosclair of Wally Tools fame set it up with the second pivot so it was done right. It has also been calibrated by him for the Soundsmith Paua but the settings should still be correct for any Soundsmith of similar weight. It would cost you a considerable amount of $ to have this set up done. Pricing is in your ball park. Please message me if interested.