Phantom B44 vs The SME V Tone Arm

Pcosta,

I never changed my internal cable but I did change the external cable. I used Harmonic Technology Crystal Silver Phono cables. It was a night & day difference. As they say, veils were lifted. Treble became very extended and bass solidified. The tuby bass was reduced. The internal cable within the arm is similar to the external cable so the "cable bottleneck" is still there. I can only imagine how much better it would be after the internal wire is upgraded.

The big advantage of a gimbaled arm is the stability of the cartridge. Cartridge life will be extended compared to most unipivots.

For me the choice would be simple.
Of these two, only the Graham gives you the full adjustability that a top quality cartridge demands. The SME-V assumes that the cartridge/cantilever/stylus is perfectly aligned....unfortunately this is rarely the case. The Graham jig allows proper alignment using the cantilever as a reference - not the cartridge body.
The SME-V doesn't offer proper VTA-on-the-fly adjustment (nor calibration), nor any azimuth adjustment.

I owned the SME-V 15yrs ago and made the switch to the Graham 1.5T - never regreted that move for a second. I far prefer the sound of the 1.5T to V on my TNT. Choosing between the new Phantom and the SME-V is an absolute no-brainer IMO.

The Phantom simply is in a total different Hemisphere. In EVERY Area.

I'd give a call to Brooks Berdan (Brooks Berdan LTD) in Monrovia, Ca. Brooks is a well known analog guy who made a name modifyng Oracle 'tables until Oracle decided to update the 'table and incorporate the Berdan mods into stock units. He sells both arms.

FWIW, he's mentioned to me on a couple of occasions that he's not crazy about SME arms, but that they seem to work very well on SME tables. BTW, he likes the Graham a lot, but I believe he prefers the Triplanar to either the Graham or the SME.

Dear Macallan25: In my opinion there is no " best " tonearm perse. Every top high end tonearm has its own up and down strength but when you copled with a cartridge that up strength could go down or could go higher, it depend on the cartridge combination and the arm board.

To say that one tonearm or other are the " best one " is a misunderstood about.

In my long analog audio experiences ( not only because I own several tonearm/cartridges ) the best tonearm is the one that help and permit that " that " cartridge always " shine " over other tonearm combination.

Do you have any opinion about?

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.