Graham Phantom II VS Vector 4 Tonearm

I suggest you contact "Larryi" to get the name of his friend who has both the Vector 3 and a Graham Phantom mounted on his Basis 2500. That way you can get an informed opinion.

(Here is a link to the thread in which Larry states his friend prefers the Vector to the Phantom.)

Scan down for Larryi's second response

Good Luck in your search!

Giddy biscuits?

I didn't know Rush was in the snack food business.

Nothing wrong with diversification.

What's next, Plant food?

I have set up both on the same table a Basis Debut Vacuum. As I type, I'm staring at a Debut vacuum right now with a Vector arm on it sitting in my listening room. I also have a close friend with the same cartridge and phonostage I use that has a Phantom Arm on a Basis Debut table. The two arms, once mastered, are really good however different in approach and execution.

These are two of about 5 tonearms that I consider to be very well executed functional designs that I’ve observed in action that were setup correctly.

Given that you already own the Phantom II; my question would be the following. What are you not content with and what are you looking for that you may feel the Vector IV can offer?

Dre_i,

Started with a Phantom I , upgraded to the II. Very nice improvement. With my system NOT powered up, did a needle drop on a spun up record . You can hear the music and vocals coming from the tone arm over two feet away! A musical tonearm that sings. So... on goes the Vector IV to my new arm board . News at 11:00

Jebsmith73,

I can understand your comment. Besides hearing the cartridge acoustically sing, do you have any issue when listening to music? Is the music lacking in some way?

Just an FYI: Some cartridges sing in the groove by design no matter what tonearm they are in. I say this as evidence of groove singing may not be an indication of degraded performance in a particular tonearm.

The XV-1s is a very well behaved cartridge in terms of transferring energy to the Tonearm. I'm surprised you could hear music so far away in that arm. Did you have damping fluid in the Phantom?

I hope this adjustment is more to your liking. The Vector IV is a very quiet arm. It's not good for adding flavor. So, you will mostly get of the character of the cartridge with little added by the tonearm. Some people don’t like this because it takes away some tuneability/character adjustability. It may take you some time to master the arm in terms of getting the most out of it but you should be happy from the first moment you install it given proper setup.

Pay close attention to setup. One more note: the XV-1S should not be riding tail down in this arm.

Congratulations on adding another tonearm to the fine one you have already.

Dre