Graham Phantom Anti-Skate. Is it effective at all?

As Downunder points out, comparing a standard Mint protractor (Baerwald) with the Graham jig (non-Baerwald) is comparing apples with oranges. Any sonic differences cannot reasonably be ascribed to the device, per se, but will rather result from the differing null points and the resulting tracking angle error differential at every point along the stylus arc.

That said, the Mint is several orders of magnitude more precise than the supplied jig. If one had both, in versions designed for the *same* alignment scheme, one's results with the Mint would necessarily be more accurate and repeatable.

Yip would make a Mint protractor for Graham's preferred alignment scheme (whatever it may be). One need only email him the tonearm mounting distance, effective length (or overhang) and the offset angle. The protractor's arc and the intended null points can be calculated from there.

Doug, the pivot to spindle distance is the difficult part to get right if you use a mint. Yip's distance is different from what Graham does with his spindle cup and empty arm wand. Like I said, for Graham arms, my experience has been better with the Graham jig vs. Mint. YMMV.

Rockitman, thanks for the super advice regarding the Graham. I had a similar situation aligning the Graham arm. In my case, I was using the Bavarian Uni-Protractor...the Graham jig was superior; IMHO, it was something to with the other's PTS quantitative scale, the Graham jig was spot-on.

Cheers!

A while back I seem to remember someone mentioning that Bob favoured the Stevenson. There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding the Graham jig. For example there is a popular belief that the graticule window weight corresponds to average downforce e.g. 1.8g. If this were true Bob would be inundated with complaints from those whose carts require lighter forces. Effectively it would destroy the suspensions on some of those carts, long term.

The reality is that the window only weighs approx. 0.5g (as stated by Graham distributor). The disadvantage of this is that it will necessarily incur a smaller deflection of the cantilever (less compression of the suspension than normal). This would cause an error but...as if in a self-compensatory manner, the angle of the window is never horizontal and will tend to offset this error.
Before users begin to "freak out" the size of the resultant error is probably less than 1/3rd the diam of a human hair i.e. not the sort of thing that even the steadiest hand will rectify without making it worse (this assuming the cart dimensions are even as claimed!). Also, the jig itself has tolerances otherwise it would seize :) These tolerances may also work towards reducing this error rather than making it worse(?)

Typically, headshells that use the 3-point mounting system will be worse than this and won't have the capacity to offset angle for badly oriented cantilevers - they have to accept the cartridge condition, warts and all...
There are a lot of unknowns here so the best advice is to do your best with the alignment and be happy. :)

I genuinely hope this helps rather than upsets :)

My experience with the Graham fixtures for arm position and cart alignment was initially very trying. I have the 9" arm. To begin, arm position needs to be such that the spindle locator pin has no stress from any direction when the headshell receptacle is lowered or raised over it. Had to get some longer 4-40 cap screws and over-drill the arm-board to make that work on my Sota. After many hours of frustration trying to get the cart alignment right, I finally realized I needed to make a macro-fixture that would hold the entire arm/cart/alignment fixture assembly stable during the adjustment process while allowing free access to all the fasteners. Only then could I fiddle around with the alignment jig targeting reticle height to get it parallel to the cartridge body and arm. Getting the stylus alignment spot-on took a stereo zoom microscope at about 15 or 20x. The vertical weight issue on alignment is a red herring IMO; the arm is inverted when using the reticle and you will be adjusting VTA (or more precisely, as Doug would point out, SRA). Any deflection caused by differing weight is not realistically measurable. Double-checked with my Pro-Ject protractor, and it was dead on. Once all that was accomplished, setting the VTF, VTA, azimuth and anti-skate was a breeze. Very minor adjustments became clearly audible and I quickly got it dialed in to my taste.

Be advised that patience is essential. The whole process took me nearly 3 MONTHS. Much of that was due to the fact I live in the sticks and have to mail order everything, including things like washers and 4-40 socket head shouldered cap screws. I also encountered several unrelated failures along the way. Still, even if I'd had no failures, lived in a city and picked up all the stuff I needed in one trip, it would have taken a week or more. Ah, the joys of such a fussy, exacting hobby. Just rest assured it will all be worth it - the Phantom Supreme II is a marvelous arm.

Good luck & happy listening!