Basis Vector vs...

Perhaps the best course of action would be to contact A.J. Conti @ Basis, and see if he would offer you some sort of trade-in value, so you can upgrade to the latest model Vector.

A.J. is a pretty nice guy, and he might do it.

My two cents worth.

I also own a Vector rev I tonearm; an excellent tonearm with superior tracking, etc. The current version of the Vector is an upgrade sonically relative to our rev 1's. I don't know all of the differences between the 2 arms, though I know the current arm uses the new Basis interconnect cable (yep, Basis is now in the cable business) which in itself would make a large & beneficial sonic difference. If there is a way to demo the current rev, it might float your boat & be an easy upgrade if you decided to acquire it.

I have a Vector I arm; I am pleased with its performance. My primary beef with the design is with the inability to adjust VTA easily. I have resorted to making a series of spacers (PVC pipe) to fit between the base of the arm and the armboard, each spacer being about .3 millimeters different in height. I have been told that I am better off selling my current arm and buying a new one than to retrofit the old arm, particularly because the most signficant upgrade is actually the tonearm wiring.

I have heard, though not in my system, Schroeder arms (reference), and that is a very nice arm too. I got to see the US distributor set the arm up; that is a task I would not want to do myself (threading the monofilament "bearing" and setting the gap between the magnets is a bit tricky). Also, the friend getting the Schroeder waited for more than a year to get his arm. It is my understanding that arthritis, or some such ailment, makes it difficult for Mr. Shroeder to turn out many arms and so a backlog has developed.

By the way, I have heard the Basis interconnect and speaker cables. In the system I heard the speaker cables in, they really sounded good -- very dynamic and gutsy. I was surprised how much louder the speakers sounded when the Basis cable replaced either XLO limited or NBS (Omega II, I believe).

Try the Dynavector 505 MKII arm. It is extraordinary and certainly matches well with your cart.

As a dealer I have tried many arms. I cannot speak of the Vector from personal experience, but I have had the Graham, Tri-Planar, Moerch, Schroeder and quite a few others. The build qality of the Dynavector and design is truly outstanding.

I'm also a fan of the Vector tonearms, although I'm not using one now. From what I've heard about the Vector 3, I would have to agree with Tubes108. I think the cabling alone would be worth the upgrade over the model 1.

Since you have a Teres I think Doug's suggestion to get the VTA adjuster from Chris is a great idea. This is the only short-coming of the Vector IMO. The VTA adjuster that A.J. supplies is very well engineered but is also more than twice as much as the Teres VTA adjuster. The VTF adjustment on the Vector is essentially the same on our Tri-Planars so the o-ring method should work very well.

Also, if you haven't experimented with the dampening oil you may find that you can tweak out a little more performance to suit your taste.

Have fun!

Dan