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VPI HW-19 with Graham 1.5 arm Question/Suggestions

Greetings everyone, 

I have a very handsome, black oak, late model VPI HW-19 Mark IV with a black Delrin Aries platter.  The tonearm is a Graham 1.5 Basic tonearm sporting a Benz Micro MC Gold cartridge with elliptical stylus.  The tonearm cable is Audio Art IC-3 Classic phono cable DIN to RCA.

The sound is good but rather lightweight, neutral and nimble but polite, one might say meek with tight but lean bass.  It is not strident or shrill, or analytical, or bright.  Most of the turntable and phono upgrades I read about suggest that they will make the sound have more clarity, be more precise, more accurate, tighter, and lower the noise floor.  These qualities are not necessarily what I want. 

I would like the sound signature to be warmer, fuller, richer, more colorful, or more romantic.  

I am considering many options, including new phono cable, new footers, a platter mat (presently records sit directly on the Delrin platter), a different record weight-stabilizer (presently using a VPI Delrin screw-down clamp), a new shelf, and of course a different cartridge.

I welcome any suggestions from anyone on how to warm up or enrich the sound quality.

hoodjem
dover
2,187 posts
 

@hoodjem 

The standard loading options on the Rowland are not optimal for this cartridge - ranging from 10-185 ohms or 47k.

The Benz has an internal impedance of 40 ohms - although 47k should be ok you might want to try 400-1000 ohms for this cartridge. I know the Benz range well.

You can do this with the Rowland - turn off all the loading switches and insert resistors in the internal loading socket internally next to the dip switches designed for this purpose - check your manual.

The Benz and Rowland I could see how one could describe them as polite - but not lacking in bottom end - I have heard both components. - for a few dollars buy some 400, 800 and 1000 ohm loading resistors then reassess.

 

hoodjem OP
19 posts
 

Thanks for all these suggestions and recommendations. 
 

I am keeping a lengthy list, and will start with the simplest, easiest, and cheapest.

 

Any others?  (Keep 'em coming.)

melm
1,057 posts
 

Just two points from here:

Your physical set up seems good enough.  Others may advise about the quality of the phono pre you're using.  It could be that a change here will do the job. You can probably try some with a return privilege.

I do not agree about fooling with VTA/SRA.  VTA is not a tone control.  There is one correct setting for the max information off of a disk.  I suggest you look elsewhere for tonal balance.

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,229 posts
 

@larryi , both Graham and Basis realized the error of their ways. Graham created an opposing magnet system as a secondary bearing and Basis added a second bearing to stabilize its arm. They are no longer unipivots. They are bipivots. 

I hate to be so...abrupt, but the Moerch arm is a bad joke from a tonearm design perspective. Get yourself one of the arms above and you will never look back. 

larryi
3,760 posts
 

Melm,

I set vta by ear, and to some extent there are tonal changes.  But, overall, I do agree that one should not make large vta changes for that purpose.  On a nine inch arm, I change the pivot height no more than 1mm or so from the arm being parallel to the record surface; this represents a fraction of a degree in vta/sra change.

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