Great Cartridge for Graham Phantom

Hello Sirspeedy. All the best for the new year. I am glad to see that you have decided to take the plunge and go for the Phantom. I know that you have put a lot of thought into your decision. I am sure you will be very happy with the results. If possible, could you characterize the changes due to the new couterweight and fluid? I suspect that with a less viscous damping fluid the sound may appear to have more "air": some audiophiles were complaining that the arm lacked "sparkle" and "air". In my system the Phantom/Helikon combo had tremendous air and sparkle in the treble region.

I have a Graham Phantom B44 mounted via a Steve Dobbins Stainless steel Panzer Holz arm board to a Garrard Stainless Steel Inspiration 501 Turntable!
I have tried Koetsu Rosewood Platinum, Ortofon Royal N SPU, Allnic Verito, ZYX Universe, Denon 103 Expert Stylus ruby re-build, Ikeda 9EMPL, Lyra Helikon, Grado Statement, Stanton CS 100, Shure V15 MkV xMr!
BY FAR THE BEST-(Decca) London Reference!!!!!!
ASR Exclusive Basis phono stage/ Stealth Indra tonearm cable.
I have ordered a Soundsmith Strain Guage-we shall see.......

Hey George(Gmorris),nice to hear from you.I will not be able to commemnt on the heavier counterweight,as I never had the original one.My friend has the original one,which sounds just great,to me.I was told the new one is for better matching of heavier cartridges,not that I see any problems at all,with the older weight.
The fluid was done,as advised by someone close to Bob Graham,who also thought it was a good idea.I know the older fluid was just fine,on my froiend's arm,but we took a bit out recently and found it fine.
I assume the differences would be minor,and the older fluid would require a bit less,in the well, as compared to the new fluid.Different amounts,based on viscosity.I'm certainly no authority on this,but just guessing.The arm,as is,is fabulous with the Orpheus,so I just want one!!
SOOOOOOON!!!I hope!!!
Best

I am also thinking Phantom right now. I thought it may be
a step up from my Vector 3. This would be to maximize the
performance of my Jade Platinum. I think this somehow ties
in to the original post. Any thoughts on this combo,or any of other stone bodied Koetsu's. BTW, 14.1 grams is the weight on the Jade.

Fjn04,I had two different stone body Koetsus.Loved them!I cannot see any reason for the Phantom(new or old) to have any problems with either.
The heavier counterweight would allow for the weight to be a bit closer to the bearing,but I cannot possibly see any reason for the older weight to not be fabulous.We all get a bit carried away with minutiae,in this hobby at times.
I'll bet one would really have to strain to hear the difference between the older Phantom and the newer one.
What happened with me,at my pal's home(he owns the original Phantom)was that we decided to get a bit nuts with the damping fluid,as we both owned the 2.2 awhile back.THAT arm is incredibly sensitive to fluid!The Phantom is not as sensitive,but it is still VERY critical of it,with the Orpheus cartridge.
So,we played around alot,and lowered the amount of fluid to the point of about half as much as previously used,as per Bob Graham's recommendation(that particular week,two months ago).
Of course he had gone from the Kharma 1.0 to the Magico Mini,so the different voicing of fluid was probably affected by the different personality(timbral/harmonic....and GORGEOUS)of the Magico Mini.
Needless to say,he is in audio heaven,as of now,and is not all bent out of shape about a micro improvement(if any),to an already great arm!
LP's we used for comparative results were Bang Baroom and Harp(RCA),Tabooh Tabuhan/The Black Maskers(Mercury 1s pressing),Decca Lp of Prince Of The Pagodas,Frank Sinatra Swingin' Session(capitol),Pop Pop/Ricky Lee Jones( re-issue),The Pendrecki Partita for Harpsichord and Orch.(EMI box set,and dynamics to die for)and a load of various violin cto's/solo stuff from Ida,Itzhak,Erica to "you name it"(my friend is a violin "maniac",and has about every violin disc ever pressed.Too many,IMO,but it's his money(he's probably spent more money on violin discs then his system)......BTW,theTransfiguration Orpheus is amazing with this arm!
Best.