Graham Phantom mk II & JA Michelle ORBE se help


I purchased a new Phantom with SME mounting for my ORBE se. According to Bob Graham's ad slick, its a drop in replacement. Not so. The geometry doesn't work. Using the orbe tone arm board cut for a sme mount, the set up is not acceptable. Then when playing a lp, the counterweight hits the vta column and the last groove will not play to the end. It's also not possible to use Graham's set up procedure due to the position of the arm relative to the spindle. JA Michelle doesn't have a new armboard for a Graham with SME footprint. Only the new Graham mounting. Not to mention the extra weight. This is very frustrating. Any easy solutions other than to recut the arm board, and try to shave some weight off of it. Had I ordered the Graham with the Graham mount, and purchased a new arm board, all would be ok, but again, the ad slick said it was a drop in replacement.
jimi_p

Showing 1 response by gerardff

Did you ever contact Artech about the armboard? Are you still using the orig. alum. armboard for the Phantom? Acording to Artech, the Phantom's 1100 g. weight is too heavy for use with the orig. armboard and you should get the newer acrylic one made specifiaclly for the Phantom's added weight. Have you noticed that the suspension is more easily set into motion with the Phantom?
When I first set up the Orbe+Graham I had three different armboards all marked Graham 2's. All three were different. One was actually for a SME arm and the others were for the Graham 2 differed in weight (and height) by 40 grams or more. I also have issues with the way the holes are drilled and my weights come in contact with the VTA pillar when I swing the arm back to the arm rest. I experimented with the rotaion of the arm base and the armboard holes and found that you could mount it so the VTA pillar was farther to the rear. Unfortunately, the SME style mount doesn't work that way.