New chucks are much better than the generic Chinese ones, tolerances are the same as the Bison or Gator. I also have the new 8" 4J that Bill has, and it is comparable to my Bison chucks in tolerance/performance and finish. When you consider that a 4J Bison D1-4 will cost close to the same as the whole preferred package, I would say that the preferred package is worth the additional expense if you do not have chucks. Some of us use a Set-Tru type of scroll chuck, you can dial them down a little closer on the repeat TIR when not using an independent type, they will cost about the same as the whole preferred package. If that is something you are interested in QMT does sell the Bison Set-Tru chucks. The actual TIR of a standard scroll is probably 0.002" or better, Set-Tru is ~0.0004", a 4J independent can be dialed in to probably 0.0001" (just takes longer).
I would say, that the new preferred package is significantly better than the previous package, I would not even consider a generic Chinese chuck on this (or most) quality of lathe. Had them, they where either returned or sit in their boxes. The Gator chucks supposedly are direct copies of the Bison, installed one of their D1-4 back plates on a Bison chuck the other day, very nice finish and tolerance at 1/2 the price of the Bison version. Bill and I have the PBA scroll 3J Set-Tru type chucks, very high quality units
. They are available through Grizzly, but are about 10% more than the Bison version . Ajax Industries also has a wide assortment of chucks with very good pricing.
Mark