Spatman no problem, fair question.
I chose the JT over the XT for a number of reasons. The JT has a 360 wing, three dumps, smooth back, it is fully committed to sm in that it is not a cross over combination bc. I found the XT (a very nice bc as well) to be more of a transitional bc from Dive Rite. Kind of a all things to all people kind of bc. The parts bolt on, the ability to add a back plate to use for bm diving. The XT seemed more to me like the half way point between sm and bm. I also don't like the weights and straps being on the back of the bc, this is a very nice feature of the JT. If you are going under something there is nothing worse that getting caught on the back of your bc, this is one major advancement for sm especially for cavers and wreck divers. I do not nor will i likely ever cave dive, but I do wreck dive. I was on the Eber Ward in the straights of Mackinaw this past weekend and it dove great. I wanted a bc that was built only for sm diving. I already have a Halcyon Eclispe which is a very nice and functional bp for bm diving, although I may never bm dive again.
The other thing I read a lot about was all the modifications that people make to their XT's. There are quite a few threads on this forum about modifying the XT. The JT is almost perfect out of the box. The only thing I added based on Caveadventurers advice was the Edd bungees and changed the D rings on the butt plate.
I believe that there will likely be a weighting option for the JT in the near future based on some emails with Lamar of Dive Rite. We will have to see.
So for me the JT was the right choice. To be perfectly honest the weighting I thought would be easier than it turned out to be. I have a really good system now that works very well. I may experiment with a soft weight plate of a similar design to my aluminum plate as I like the fact I retained the smooth back.
Stano