Graham tonearm tweaking

sirspeedy,

Please don't come down so hard on me. I enjoy your posts very much, and am grateful for your presence here. I am not your third grade teacher - I am one of your loyal readers.

I always read your posts and have often wondered about your writing style, and have thought about making this suggestion before (use paragraphs, more white space etc). This particular post is the longest one of yours I've read, and I decided to speak up.

I have all The Absolute Sounds.

Regards,

Thanks for the informative post SirSpeedy. I spent all day yesterday dialing in the loading on my cartridge, and I now need to tweak the arm itself. I will use your guidelines to start that process. Already I am impressed with the sound of the arm especially in the bass register.

I am looking forward to keeping this arm for a long time. You know, "THE FINAL TURNTABLE". hahaha. I have said that before, but this Teres with the Graham arm may fill the bill.

BTW. I have some of the old style, clear silicone fluid. Should I be ordering the new blue fluid since I am starting this process from scratch? Will there be any major improvement, or is blue just the color of the day?

Thanks, Brad.

Brad:
I was told by Bob Graham that the blue fluid (if you can call it a fluid!) is the result of refined development and is superior to the older clear fluid. He mentioned the viscosity and breakdown properties being better. Never compared the two, though.

Metralla,sorry for being so obnoxious,in my response.I am a "one finger at a time typist",though getting better.I will try to learn a bit more as you seem sincere.Originally,I thought you were putting me on.The thing is that I got so excited about sharing this info I just started to fly on the keyboard(slowly)without thinking.Also,to be criticized,after putting in such an effort,with the nagging of my family to "get off the computer,and take us out to eat"really rubbed me the wrong way!But,that's the past!..........As for any ego, for readership,though the responses are a true compliment,and,I appreciate them,I was only concerned with the RESULT,of other hobbyists gaining REAL pleasure,from what took me eons to learn............Bfuerher,I have a dear friend that has an,almost,exact system as mine.We do our tweaking together,for comparative results.The "Blue" fluid IS DEFINITELY superior.No contest,actually.Also,for those with a 2.0,the upgrade to the 2.2(which I did)is FAR superior to the 2.0.Also,very easy to do,and not expensive..........I suspect(just my opinion here)the Phantom is not as critical to fluid level,since the literature claims that the magnet assembly aids "damping".I don't like this,as I feel the tuneability of the 2.2(once understood)is a REAL ADVANTAGE.Also,as I understand it, the Phantom is a MUCH more massive design.Since I have a cartridge weighing only 7gms.I like the idea of putting less mass(arm/cart.)over the groove.The benefit of this is mentioned on,both,the Van den hul,and, Air Tangent web-sites.Though,for heavier cartridges,the Phantom is probably the way to go(lets see some"REAL" reviews).Enough with the endless quantities of pages,every issue, of recommended components.This takes copy away from "real" issues.I'm not holding my breath!!Anyway,the 2.2 is a rediculously good arm.Why do you think Graham kept it in production?

I like to offer my school boy explanation. The fluid level is critical because it affect the sonic energy resonates and dissipates from the tonearm. For bearing tonearms such as gimbal and unipivot, the bearing friction is critical. Remember your good old school days, when you drag your finger nails across the black board, the screechy noise frequencies depend on the pressure on your finger nails and the dryness (friction coeficient) of the board. Frictionless tonearms don't have this problem but they have problem with stability.