Graham Phantom , simple tweak for improved sound


All you Phantom owners , don't tighten the locking set screw after you set your VTA. . Big improvement in my system.
jebsmith73
Must admit I have never tightened the locking screw. Seems counter productive as the screw up/down VTA tower is hardly loose and never moves when adjusted.

Good that it does make a positive difference thou - seems like i am not missing out on anything

cheers
Interesting, if partly counter-intuitive. On the face of it one prefers rigidity in an arm mount. All threads have free play, else they couldn't move, thus we have locking screws to prevent even slight movements which absorb dynamics and soften or muddy the sound, not to mention allowing tiny deviations in mounting distance, azimuth, etc.

OTOH, tightening a lock screw does affect energy transfers between the male and female halves of threads. I'd posit that snugging the Phantom's VTA threads together allows stray energies to reflect off that interface back down the armwand toward the cartridge. Leaving a tiny bit of free play allows those stray energies to be dampened by free motion of the resonating part - less noise reflected back toward the cartridge.

Rega arms are well known to behave in similar fashion. Tightening their lock nuts is widely observed to degrade sound quality. OTOH and IME, Schroeder, TriPlanar and Talea tonearms do not behave so. On those arms the sound is clearer, more dynamic and more stable with the VTA threads snugged down. Presumably they manage stray energies by other means. Every tonearm's implementation is unique ...

I don't own a Phantom but it would be interesting to read owners' detailed descriptions of the sonic effects of this set screw. Downunder hasn't investigated but JebSmith73 reports significant sonic differences. What are they, specifically? As we know, one audiophile's improvement is another's disaster. ;-)
I recall reading a post where someone tried the same thing with a VPI tonearm and got the same result. If I remember the post correctly, the person called VPI and Mike told him that what he was hearing was a "pleasing distortion". Maybe it's the same case here?

Cheers.
You can also try:

1. Different cartridge screws (material aluminum, Steel, copper...)

2. When you live in areas with different temperatures, replace the Silicone with Bearing oil
Interesting. I didn't hear any sonic difference with tightening or not tightening the VTA screw. Great that serves as a tweak to improve the sound for you.