TW Raven 10.5" Tonearm

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

Mk1. And I want to emphasize that the graham sounded very good. I just found the tw to sound even better. My friends, who have heard my system through its various versions all agreed. I am using kharma midi exquisite speakers and asr emitter II exclusive amp and asr basis exclusive phono stage so it may just be a great match with my gear. However, if you have an ac-3, which is the same table I have, I would definitely give the tw arm an audition. Good luck

Cheers for giving some context and details to your earlier statement.
Appreciate that. By being more "musical" do you think the TW arm give it a bit more bloom in your all solid state amp/phono and highly revealing Kharma speakers thus sounding more appealing?

You raise an interesting point while I thought the graham had pretty good air around the instruments. There was an ease of presentation that i got with the tw that i initially thought had more to do with the cart than the arm. However, i did not quite get this with the graham. The sonic picture was clearer with the tw and that did have something to do with bloom. On the macrodynamics both had plenty of air but the tw seemed to have much more air and seperation on the micro level. Finally, the dimensionality, and seperation of instruments from front to back was much more pronounced with the tw.