Basis Vector vs...

I have a Vector I arm; I am pleased with its performance. My primary beef with the design is with the inability to adjust VTA easily. I have resorted to making a series of spacers (PVC pipe) to fit between the base of the arm and the armboard, each spacer being about .3 millimeters different in height. I have been told that I am better off selling my current arm and buying a new one than to retrofit the old arm, particularly because the most signficant upgrade is actually the tonearm wiring.

I have heard, though not in my system, Schroeder arms (reference), and that is a very nice arm too. I got to see the US distributor set the arm up; that is a task I would not want to do myself (threading the monofilament "bearing" and setting the gap between the magnets is a bit tricky). Also, the friend getting the Schroeder waited for more than a year to get his arm. It is my understanding that arthritis, or some such ailment, makes it difficult for Mr. Shroeder to turn out many arms and so a backlog has developed.

By the way, I have heard the Basis interconnect and speaker cables. In the system I heard the speaker cables in, they really sounded good -- very dynamic and gutsy. I was surprised how much louder the speakers sounded when the Basis cable replaced either XLO limited or NBS (Omega II, I believe).

Try the Dynavector 505 MKII arm. It is extraordinary and certainly matches well with your cart.

As a dealer I have tried many arms. I cannot speak of the Vector from personal experience, but I have had the Graham, Tri-Planar, Moerch, Schroeder and quite a few others. The build qality of the Dynavector and design is truly outstanding.

I'm also a fan of the Vector tonearms, although I'm not using one now. From what I've heard about the Vector 3, I would have to agree with Tubes108. I think the cabling alone would be worth the upgrade over the model 1.

Since you have a Teres I think Doug's suggestion to get the VTA adjuster from Chris is a great idea. This is the only short-coming of the Vector IMO. The VTA adjuster that A.J. supplies is very well engineered but is also more than twice as much as the Teres VTA adjuster. The VTF adjustment on the Vector is essentially the same on our Tri-Planars so the o-ring method should work very well.

Also, if you haven't experimented with the dampening oil you may find that you can tweak out a little more performance to suit your taste.

Have fun!

Dan

Dan,

Any chance you can expand on tweaking with damping fluid. I have a basis 2200 with vector III arm. Are you referring to the fluid in the PODS? Thanks.

Walkelin, I'm speaking of the oil in the bath of the Vector. The Basis manual just says something like "fill to the bottom of the small bearing" and that's it. Much like Graham's description of the dampening fluid level in the 2.2.

If you remove fluid you will increase dynamics and transparency. Too much and the bass will go flabby. It is definitely a tunable parameter and I did not find it near as finicky as the 2.2.