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Graham Phantom Supreme?

Has anyone done a comparison between the Supreme and the mkII? Is it worth changing and expending the extra outlay?

The main revisions appear to be the bearing housing and an improved magneglide stabiliser (I think the internal wiring was up to a good standard already on the mkII)

There is a company called AudioMax Ltd (approved contractor?) which can perform upgrades from both Phantom I and Phantom II to the Supreme build.
Any experience of this conversion out there ?
Many thanks... :)
moonglum
rockitman's avatar
rockitman
417 posts
 
The supreme is a killer arm. I of course do not have experience with the previous incarnation of the Phantom II as the Supreme is my first Graham arm. All I know is that the Supreme sounds fantastic....Fast, dynamic, rock solid imaging and sound stage...Very nice extended and tight bass.
lewm
13,106 posts
 
Looking at photos of both the Supreme and the II, it seems that both require the use of ancillary ICs, between the base of the tonearm and the preamp. Presumably there is a DIN plug tucked up in the base, as per usual. Has anyone had the tonearm re-wired so as to eliminate the DIN plug and provide a straight shot through to the phono stage input jack from the cartridge (or more correctly from the arm wand contacts)? Does Graham offer this option?
Thanks.
rockitman's avatar
rockitman
417 posts
 
Yes, the Supreme requires separate IC's (DIN to your choice in the phono pre). I doubt that would be an option although it couldn't hurt to ask. The probelm with that is, Graham would have to supply the continuous wire from cart clips to phono-pre jacks. In my case I use a Nordost Valhalla Phono cable. I doubt Graham would use such an expensive cable as that. I suppose they could use the same wire as they use in their top of line phono cable.
wrm57
1,048 posts
 
Never heard of a captive cable on a Graham. I don't think it's an option.
lewm
13,106 posts
 
Rockitman, Some plain old thin gauge silver wire would make me happy enough, and since one would be paying for the re-working of the tonearm, one could also pay for quality wire, Nordost notwithstanding. Any good quality continuous length of wire would be preferable to having the signal traverse the DIN plug, IMO.
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