Phono cable for Graham Phantom

Hi Ed,

You won't go wrong with either cable. Especially since you both in your system already today. Also, if you try the Proteus Provectus, you might sell your Dominus. Differences on these 2 being the PP more clarity and lower resolution. And seems to make the fluid/Ferrox diff melt away and split the gap here. You really have to audition this, Dominus is still very good, just in my system the PP was synergistic. Dominus still goes deeper and maybe more demensional.

Regarding the tonearm cables (Stealth Hyperphono vs Proteus Provectus). I had the Stealth on loan from my dealer for a few days. I swapped it back and forth a few times then just left it in and play for a day or two. The Stealth may have a touch more resolution, but with out loosing warmth. The Proteus is close here, but it has a much darker background. My dealer had RFI issues on the Stealth (he lives in town I don't) So not sure if this is a concern or just a issue with him. The Proteus has a since of continuousness from note to note that is uncanny. Honestly, these two are close. I choose the Protues given I already had a all Purist system and I was going to have to spend weeks to see if the Stealth was better.

If you try the Proteus Provecus, watch it, you may want to upgade your Opis, AA and Dominus. I am still using Opis off my DVD player, but I have tried the PP in that location and it's major upgrade. Over Dominus it's more a system matching, but worked out for me.

Hope that helps. Sorry it's not a black and white answer on the tonearm cables.

Hi Ed one final point. I went from Venastus to PP on the tonearm cable. This is no subtle upgrade. It's quite large and since you have the AA tonearm cable, I suspect you will have to same result.

Jfrech,

Thanks very much for your analysis. I agree with you that once you reach the Purist and Stealth levels, there's not a lot of black and white between comparable cables even when the materials & designs are quite different.

I have liked the AA much better than the Venustas in my system. The Venustas were base shy, the top end seemed rolled off the midrange seemed a bit smeared. AA has better clarity and resolution top to bottom with good soundstage and imaging. Dominus Ferox is slower than AA and even a bit slower than VD Revelation 2. Dominus has more liquid midrange and sweeter highs than the VD Rev 2, but base is not as tight as VD Rev 2. Stealth Indra RCA did not do well on my Aesthentix IO phonostage, but the IO seems not to like RCA. Indra RCA is superb on my Ayre C-5xeMP, even though its not supposed to sound as good on RCA. Indra is fastest cable I have tried and has biggest soundstage and separation of instruments.

I just bought a used PP XLR so I can try it out against Dominus Ferox VD Rev 2. I'm hoping that it has at least as much resolution as both Dominus and Rev 2 with base, and soundstage more like Rev 2 and mid-range and highs more like Dominus. Hopefully, it will help me decide about phono cable too.

Will let you know how it compares in my system after I have compared them for a couple of weeks.

Thanks again,

Ed

I have tried the following with the Phantom 2 arm: Hovland MG2, Tricon, hyperphono and analysis crystal oval. There is inherent difference in sound between all these cables. By changing the input imped on the phono stage, I can make this cables sound closer to each other. I suspect if your phono stage has capacitance adjustments in addition to imped., you can minimize the cable differece even more.

In the end, I went with AP for a very balance and warm sound. It did not suffer any loss in resolution comparing with the rest.

I suggest you try the Crystal Cable Dreamline - your quest will come to an end