DtM,
It's a little hard to talk about Cello's Vector. IIRC we only heard one cartridge on it, his Shelter 901, and that clearly hasn't broken in yet. My 901 sounded less constrained, edgy or peaky than Cello's no matter what arm we put it on. Keeping that in mind, here are my impressions of the Basis Vector and Graham 2.2:
The Vector is more dynamic. Those dynamics sounded a bit strained or "hifi" at times, but I'm pretty sure that was due to the new cartridge.
The Graham seemed a bit smoother, rounder or warmer, though again that could be due to Cello's newish 901 making the Vector sound edgier.
For useability and ease of adjustment it's no contest, the Graham wins by a mile. It's an easy and pleasurable arm to use. The Vector's lack of VTA adjustment is a major oversight. Cello was wise to order the Teres VTA adapter for it, without that the Vector would be a non-starter for me despite it's considerable sonic merits.
For clarity and neutrality however I think the eventual winner may be the Vector. Once everything breaks in I think the Graham's very slight warmth may be more noticeable. This is very subtle however, and either arm could be right for certain systems, tastes, or cartridges. It may even depend on the recording. Electric guitar and female pop or jazz vocals on the Graham/Koetsu RSP were just magical. Nice to have a 340-2 and two such fine setups to choose from.
Here's a revelation for you: either of these fine arms clobbers my modded OL Silver! Who'da thunk it? I heard no inner groove problems on the Vector or the 2.2. I have those constantly with my OL. It's nothing to do with cartridge alignment, the OL just won't let the stylus trace those tight inner groove modulations cleanly. The Vector and 2.2 both do a better job and they're both less colored. Since returning home, Paul and I now both hear the OL's limitations on every record. (Curse you Cello! I knew something like this would happen.) Of course a $900 arm has no business playing in this kind of traffic, and Twl's $20 HIFI Mod gives the Silver every inch of the Vector's stunning dynamics. It actually beats the Graham there, if nowhere else.
At the opposite end of ridiculous was CB's Schroeder Reference. It's in a class of its own, price-wise and performance-wise. With my Shelter 901 on it we had an open pipeline to the music, there were no sonic artifacts from arm or cartridge at all. It was like both components had just disappeared. Fairly amazing stuff, as you'd hope for from an arm that costs nearly as much as a Vector and a 2.2 combined.
Say, anyone wanna buy a lightly used, lovingly modified OL Silver - for about $5K? We'll even throw in Paul's paper clip VTF adjuster, which works better than the VTF on any of those overpriced sticks we heard at Cello's! :-)
