Phantom Supreme to 4Point-14?


I'm considering it. Who's done it and what did you think? Members who've heard a head-to-head comparison are also welcome to chime in.

The turntable is an SP10R in Artisan Fidelity plinth. Cartridges at this point are an mainlyan A90 and Benz Ebony TR, but I'm planning for a MSL Gold or Platinum sometime down the road.

Thanks.

wrm57

FWIW, so far as I know, the SP10 mk3 and the SP10R have identical relationships between the platter location and that of the surrounding rectangular escutcheon, and I had no problem mounting a 10.5 inch Reed tonearm on my mk3. So I don’t know why you think the 11 inch Kuzma would not work.

Lewm, I'm not sure which Reed you have but the 10.5's I've looked at have mounting distances of around 231mm or 251mm. Both would be fine for the R. The 11" 4Point mounts at 212mm, however, which scoots it up next to the motor housing, maybe too close, and forces the pivot it to be at 3:00 or so to the spindle, maybe lower. This would put the cartridge, at the end of that long arm, a little beyond the front of the plinth when in the armrest. The salient point here is that although the 4Point is 11 inches long, it mounts like a rather short 9-inch arm, which is a challenge for the SP motor housing.

Thanks, I hadn’t been aware of that oddity about the 11" Kuzma. I guess I should have been alerted to it because you did mention the mounting distance in an earlier post. But if the distance from the pivot to the spindle (aka "mounting distance") is only 212mm, how does it end up being 11" in effective length? I will have to look at some photos.

OK, I did find photos.  When you quote mounting distance, are you referring to the necessary room needed to clear the very large diameter VTA tower, which is larger than those used by Triplanar or Reed?  So in your parlance, the mounting distance is not equal to the pivot to spindle distance, in that case.

For the 4P-11 and 4P-14, the P2S measurement is very different from the mounting distance because the pivot is located on an outrigger platform. Mounting distance is where you drill out the armboard and mount the arm base. This outriggered pivot is what enables an 11 inch arm to fit where a 9 would usually go, which is an ingenious boon to most turntables but not our our SPs because of that big square escutcheon. The 4P-9 and Safir, however, mount at the pivot like many arms.

I would not go with the 14. Go with the 11. I do thing it is a better arm for many cartridges than the Graham and certainly a lot better value. My personal favorite is the 9. I understand the 11 and 9 won't fit. I own the MSL Signature Platinum and the 14 will be too heavy for it without a lot of damping which puts added stress on the cartridge. Take a look at the Schroder LT. It has the right spindle to mounting hole distance for your table and it is a tangential tracker that does not require anti skating. Very cool design. A 12" Tri Planer would work and a 12" Reed 2G would work. There is not much wrong with the SME V12 either.