TW Raven 10.5" Tonearm

i have had the tw arm for several months . i had a few small issues with the arm which thomas immediately took care of. i had a graham phantom as a loaner for a couple of weeks. the tw arm killed it; it was not close. the graham is a good arm, but for me it was not in the same league. everyone who heard it in my system with the same cart agreed. thomas could paint bozo the clown on the arm and i could not live without it.

"Killed it"? Please care to elaborate a bit more on the superiority over the Phantom and what cartridge was used.

"Killed it"? Please care to elaborate a bit more on the superiority over the Phantom and what cartridge was used.

That is a normal description from TW product owners. Everything from them "kills" everything out there. Whenever I listened to one of these products I got different impressions, - FAR different ones - but I am always ready to learn.

i was using the dynavector DRT XV-1t. I, along with several other friends who listened to both arms, found the tw arm to have a much more balanced sound. It provided a more realistic presentation with a larger, more 3 dimensional sound stage. I also found it to be much more musical. For me it was not close and I was offered the chance to trade the tw for a Graham, Triplanar or Dyna arm. I have had a few issues with the arm starting with a bad experience with customs. If the 2 arms were close in performance I was primed to change. However, after living with both arms for some time, I could not switch. There have been a number of times where it has been midnight on a work night and I have trouble turning off the system when the tw arm was in place. The graham never had that effect on me. I understand that this is all subjective and the graham is a great arm--if I had never had a chance to do an a/b comparison in my system, I am sure I would be happy if I had the graham. It just did not have the same realistic presentation for me as the tw. Different strokes for different folks, but I have the arm that works best for me in my system and that opinion was shared by others who heard the 2 arms in my system. "Killed" was too strong a term as the Graham is a great arm and I am sure it is the perfect arm for some folks on their rigs. I aplogize if I offended anyone--I am just bowled over with how the tw arm/table has transformed my system. The main thing is that we all find the equipment that gives us the most enjoyment and for me it is the tw. If anyone has a chance to audition one-I would highly recommend it.

Thanks for that Rdcline.

This is good feedback as I have a Phantom 1 on my AC-3 as well as an Ortofon AS-309-S.

was the phantom a mk1 or mk 2 that you compared it to.

cheers