Graham Phantom vs Triplaner

Hi Tim

Yea I had the same opinion you had, however after TAS review where Garcia reviewed them both on the same table and same transfiguration cartridge and some of the views here it would almost seem that opinion's are reversed. Phantom being smooth and less dynamic and tri-planer being more dynamic and a more detail (or a little eadgy).
I assume you still have your atmosphere amps, hence being aligned a little closer to tri-planer.

I heard the atmosphere amps with tri-planer arm I think with a grand prix TT with some nice big horn speakers at the Show. Sounded excellent and credit given to this room as one of only 3 that played rock n roll rather than the jazz volcalist crap that all were playing.
I also met Tri-Mai and he is a lovely gentlemen who refused to get into what tonearm sounds better conversation, just that he was very happy the tri-planer was competitive with the best out there.

Still no closer at what is best for my warmish, dynamic tastes :-)

Raul

Humor me here. What is the difference between VPI or Graham type arm and using different headshell weights compared to using same arm with different headshells??

Also where can you get the Ortofon tonearms from?. They are not on the Ortofon website.

Downunder, speak to Juki for the Ortofon arm, he sells them. I almost got mine there but ended up going with Jeffrey from Highwater Sound in NYC, (because I was buying my Raven from him). I did get the LH-8000 headshell for it from Juki though, (if you get one don't forget to get a headshell because they don't come with one).

A friend of mine has both a Phantom and a Vector arm on a table drilled for two arms. He has both a Titan i and a Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge. Both cartridges sound terrific on either arm. I would characterize the Phantom and the Vector as very well dampened arms -- the arms control and dampen vibrations imparted by the cartridge. This is quite evident by the fact that with either arm one hears very little "groove chatter" coming from the arm/cartridge combination. In this respect, the Vector is slightly quieter than the Phantom. Is this good? In theory, yes, but in practice it depends on one's taste and system interaction. In a slightly dead (or "polite") system, it may be an advantage for the arm/cartridge combination to resonate and "sing" a little. This can make the music sound more dynamic and alive. I've clearly heard this in this same system when a Linn/Naim Aro and Transfiguration Phoenix cartridge was auditioned.

As far as objective performance, with the Orpheus, both the Vector and Phantom tracked a Shure Obstacle course record with equal ability. But, in terms of tracking, both were clearly outperformed by an SME 309 using the same Orpheus cartridge. Still, in terms of real life performance, all of these arms performed well.

I have seen many topnotch vinyl systems built around a variety of arms/tables so I can't say any one combination is obviously superior. I've heard great systems with Vector arms (my own choice), Grahams, Triplanars, Shroeder, Naim, Clearaudio and Moerch.

Downunder, did you come into our room at T.H.E. Show? If so, what day (one day 2 and 3 we had the beryllium-dome field-coil drivers running)?

The turntable was an RPM 2.