Graham Phantom Elite vs. AS Aquilar

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.

I have shared communications with Warrjon, there is engineering work that he undertakes that has proved to be quite interesting to myself.

Also through an Australian having imported a Mk VIII version of the Tonearm I use, he has had a direct experience of it in use, with some of the small changes to the design, that I have encouraged to be investigated and have after a variety of trials , materials were discovered that made it viable to have them put in place.

I am also entering into this same journey of discoveries with another friend who has designed a Tonearm from scratch and now has a Batch produced.

Let the voicing of the Arm begin, I'm to have a front row seat 😎.

Dear @wrm57  :  What certainly will improves the EPA 100 quality performance is a internal wiring change and other that your own observation/listen to it the only way to be sure is in good condition is to send not for modification other that the internal wiring but to check if it's in good operation condition and especially its bearing mechanism.

My sample was in pristine condition as it was too the EPA 100MK2 too.

Some owners like to make a change at the bearing for steeel balls instead the stock ruby and even with ceramic balls: not recomended.

In those times some EPA 100 came with the EPA100MK2 headshell ( boron alloy. ) that's truly good but the advantage is that the design is a removable headshell one and you can mount the cartridges with the one that mates the better to each cartridge.

Btw, in that link a USA gentleman with at least same technical level than theOP posted:

" I’ve had more than a dozen through here and have seen two with the issue, both fixed as I described. Unless you have one that’s out of tolerance, if you disassemble the base you’ll realize that backlash isn’t in the picture.

I appreciate your efforts and your work looks quite nice. I’d only wish meaningful data was shared as it’d help a lot in understanding performance. A plot of a single frequency doesn’t tell us much, and before and after plots of compound changes coupled with those plots being at two very different scales obfuscate even further. If the audible differences are so great how about some needle drops? "

and seems that those gentlemans love the MM designs ( nothing wrong with that ) but the tonearm works really fine with MC too.

Here you will find a gentleman from Germany that is an specialist and who in case you have a doubt of the tonearm operation can makes a check up and obviously the internal wiring change:

[Review] Technics EPA-100 tonearm listening test (tnt-audio.com)

For the gentlemans that do not seen before the EPA 100 here any one can see it through the Technics brochure:

Technics EPA 100 Variable Dynamic Damping Universal Tonearm Manual | Vinyl Engine

It's a beautiful design that still today fulfill cartridge compliance needs. It's unique to Technics.

R.