Graham Phantom vs Triplaner

A friend of mine has both a Phantom and a Vector arm on a table drilled for two arms. He has both a Titan i and a Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge. Both cartridges sound terrific on either arm. I would characterize the Phantom and the Vector as very well dampened arms -- the arms control and dampen vibrations imparted by the cartridge. This is quite evident by the fact that with either arm one hears very little "groove chatter" coming from the arm/cartridge combination. In this respect, the Vector is slightly quieter than the Phantom. Is this good? In theory, yes, but in practice it depends on one's taste and system interaction. In a slightly dead (or "polite") system, it may be an advantage for the arm/cartridge combination to resonate and "sing" a little. This can make the music sound more dynamic and alive. I've clearly heard this in this same system when a Linn/Naim Aro and Transfiguration Phoenix cartridge was auditioned.

As far as objective performance, with the Orpheus, both the Vector and Phantom tracked a Shure Obstacle course record with equal ability. But, in terms of tracking, both were clearly outperformed by an SME 309 using the same Orpheus cartridge. Still, in terms of real life performance, all of these arms performed well.

I have seen many topnotch vinyl systems built around a variety of arms/tables so I can't say any one combination is obviously superior. I've heard great systems with Vector arms (my own choice), Grahams, Triplanars, Shroeder, Naim, Clearaudio and Moerch.

The common use of a particular component at CES or any show does not necessarily mean it is the "best" or is being endorsed by all those folks. Sure, the Triplanars are not being given away, but, anyone who loans gear to others at a show will find plenty of takers.

Some manufacturers, like Wilson, loan a lot of stuff out in order to be seen/heard in a lot of different places. That is a good business practice, not necessarily a measure of anything else.

Just for the record, I think the Triplanar is a very, very good arm.

Thomas,

Thanks for sharing your observations. It appears that you personally favor the Phantom and the DaVinci. A friend has the Phantom and a Basis Vector, so I've heard both with a Lyra Titan and a Transfiguration Orpheus. I have never so much as seen the DaVinci, so your description has me interested.

Yes, Tri Mai is a nice guy, and so was the founder Herb Papier. I've also met Victor Conti from Vector. It seems like a lot of the people involved in tonearm design are great guys who are passionate about their work.

I am a bit leery of the whole business of people needing to establish which is "the best," treating everything as some kind of competition. I've heard a lot of different and good setups using a wide range of arms -- Shroeder Reference, Kuzma (tangential/air bearing), Vector, Naim Aro, SME, Moerch, Graham Phantom, etc. I've heard the same cartridge (Transfiguration Orpheus) in different arms in the same system.

As a general observation, when one is using an arm that is compatible with a particular cartridge, among very well designed arms, the differences are slight as compared to the difference in sound from changing cartridges or the turntable itself. That actually argues in favor of the easy-to-use arms (Graham, Triplanar). I say "slight" in comparison, but, differences are notable and certainly worth considering. But, these kinds of differences fall into the category of system tuning, personal preferences, etc. and so nothing suggests one is better than the other.

Piedpiper,

I own a Titan/Vector/Basis Debut combination feeding a Viva Fono phonostage (tube based). I like the "quickness" of the Titan and its wide open top end, and its very precise and unequivocal placement of instruments. I had the chance to listen to a friend's Orpheus in my system. While I did not experiment with loading of the Orpheus (extremely difficult with the Viva), this cartridge sounded GREAT. It is more upper midrange present and slightly more full-bodied than the Titan, but, it has a touch lesstop end openness and speed. Personally, I like both cartridges and would not find it easy to pick between them.

A good friend has two arms on a Basis 2800 -- the Vector and a Phantom, and has both a Titan and the Orpheus that I borrowed. For whatever reason, he slightly prefers the Vector for both cartridges, but I can't say why. He prefers the Orpheus to the Titan.

That same Orpheus spent time in yet another friend's system before that person also bought his own Orpheus. In that system, it was mounted on an SME 309. In at least one respect, namely tracking, the Orpheus performed better in the SME than in either the Phantom or Vector. This is based on the use of an old Shure test record that plays music at increasingly higher modulation level. We use this test to set antiskating, and it was clear that the Orpheus was handling higher levels with the SME (in real world listening, this would not matter as the Orpheus does not mistrack in any of the arms we used).