Graham Phantom Elite vs. AS Aquilar

Dear @wrm57  : "  I’m excited. In the end, my addiction to Graham ergonomics was too hard to break.  "

This is all about, the Grham is the one you like and no one can argue against it. Good.

R.

Thanks @rauliruegas . Burning in the internal wiring now and will install the arm in a week or so. It is a beauty and much heftier than the Supreme.

I thought I’d update this thread. The Phantom Elite turned out to be a major disappointment. I found its bearing structure to be surprisingly unstable, wobbling in protracted oscillation when lightly touched as the armwand rested on the cueing lift. While this is by no means a definitive test for how it behaves with stylus in the groove, it gave me serious pause. My Phantom III and Supreme do not wobble thus. My sense is that the magnets in the Magnaglide system are too far apart in this model (33% farther apart than the Supreme and III), weakening the force that stabilizes the bearing housing, which itself seems substantially more massive than the earlier models and therefore in need of more, not less, magnetic stabilization. And while the Elite was sonically far more detailed, it was also much brighter.  I couldn’t shake the suspicion that this brightness was in part an artifact of the apparent instability. Anyway, I prefer the sound of my older Phantoms as being more natural. Fortunately, I was able to return it to the dealer for a full refund. Kudos to Elusive Disc for standing behind its return policy.

Now I’m on to another 10-inch at a small fraction of the cost. Taking the recommendation of @rauliruegas , I just bought a Technics EPA-100 from a seller in Japan. Supposedly it’s in great shape but we’ll see when it gets here.

I have had very successful experiences importing from Japan.

On two occasions only, over many years, (1 x Tonearm and 1 x TT)  a goods arrived not as advertised and the insurance policy on the sale item paid a large proportion of the loss. 

If it helps, I was in the Market for a Tonearm that I wanted to be a substantial improvement, 'in my assessment' and had a idea the Budget required was to be between £6K-£10K to find something that would excel in performance over the two Rega copied design Tonearms I was using regularly. 

I was extremely fortunate to meet an individual at a audio social event I attended.

The end product being I discovered a Tonearm produced from a similar era as the EPA 100.

The learning about the TA, revealed it had undergone substantial redesign/modification under the hood, my search for a Tonearm came to an end quite quickly.

My continued friendship with the designer has introduced me to much more information about the design intent, I have also been instrumental in encouraging a few tweaks to be investigated and are now selected to be in place on later models. Which I can claim with certainty, that there is betterment now available, and this is all I need to aspire to, even though I am already extremely contented with the guise used for my model  .

Once your up and running curiosity might creep in, the link might prove useful.

 https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/technics-epa100-modifications.365859/ 

@pindac, that is a fascinating thread. Thank you.