Graham Phantom vs Triplaner

Jimjoyce25,

I have not tried the Continuum. Halcro has some experience with these.

I would like to try some other arms in the future with some other carts for experiment sake. But lately have been stingy with extra cash!

One thing i wonder about the graham is how much the sheer total mass of the arm contributes to the sound. Does a higher mass create some dampening or mechanical grounding effect?

I wonder if any of you have given any more thought to the influence of the total weight of the tonearm with respect to dampening. I wonder how much of the dampening occurs in the headshell and arm tube versus the rest of the arm assembly.

I suppose that if the armtube is properly damped, then the rest of the arm mass or dampening proerties is not as critical. However, I would think that if the arm tube is not effectively damped then the mass and material of the remaining assembly plays a greater role.

I have heard the Fidelity Research/Ikeda arms (effective mass aside) are considered as effective as they are due to the sheer mass of the arm.

Also, I have heard from the Triplanar tips that removing the damping trough has sonic benefits. If the damping trough is so far away from the headshell and if the arm tube is effectively damped, why would this make a sonic difference?

Any thoughts?

Can I answer with another question? Why do Graham arms have damping around the bearing?

The answer is: because it is black :-)

But what about the gold trim, Syntax? :-)

Should we also pull the Vector into the discussion about fluid damping?

As far as I know, the TP is the only one of these arms that can actually play very well with no damping fluid. But I wouldn't extend that as an offer as to why one design may be perceived as better than another. In the end, each is a sum of its parts.