Graham Phantom damping fluid level.

I started with the level half way up the square area as per the instructions. But the sound just lacked drive ,so after reading this thread i lowered the level to the bottom of the square portion and it made a huge improvement. The problem i have is i need to lower the VTA more and i run out of down travel. I have now added the cartridge spacer supplied by Graham and this allowed me to raise the VTA . But now the sound was underdamped so i raised the level of the damping fluid about 1/16" up the squared portion. I am assuming because of the spacers extra weight more damping fluid is required to control it. This combo sounds great but still don't have much down VTA adjustment, on some lp's i am at the full down position.

Strangely mine did not come with a spacer and I am out of VTA down VTA travel as well.

That is strange yours was not supplied with the tonearm. I would think if you contact Graham you could probably get one. I prefer the sound of the tonearm with the spacer installed , it seems to be cleaner sounding and i can hear more detail in the music. I wish i could get more down VTA travel i am at my limit on some lp's. If you read the Stereophile review they talk about the spacer in the review.

I use the spacer with my Koetsu RSP and also used it with the Black. I like it better than without. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this. I feel that the lower the damping fluid level is on the squared off portion, the better low and mid frequencies sound, however the downside seems to be that upper frequencies are somewhat compromised. Don't get me wrong, everything sounds great but I'd like to hear a little cleaner upper frequency response.

You need the VTA fairly negative as a rule of thumb on Koetsu. The back of the cartridge should be level. If you know Koetsu this indicates the front of the cartridge being tilted up or a negative VTA. This can only be achieved w. a spacer. The benefit of this approach is that you can increase the effective mass of the arm and the Koetsu (order a spacer in brass is ideal) will sound much better. I know, everyone is going on about damping. But that is fine tuning after everything else is correct. Get the resonant frequency below 12 Hz. I doubt anyone w, a Graham has done so if extra mass was not added. Once you get that done you will hear dynamics and bass. Until then, it will be much more congested.