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

Showing 4 responses by lewm

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, 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.
Thanks for that short review, Syntax. I take it from your remarks that you are using the 9-inch arm wand right now. Dertonearm said or implied that you also do own the 12-inch. I am thinking about the 10-inch.....
In theory, I side with Doug and Dertonearm. In practice, I think I can "hear" connectors with MC cartridges and not so much with higher output MM and MI cartridges. I empirically assign blame to the low output of the MCs in question. However, the contacts I/we are usually dealing with are either DIN plugs at the base of the tonearm or the horror of a headshell, which can actually add three sets of contacts in the signal path, one at the cartridge pins, one at the rear of the headshell itself, and one on the other side of the headshell, where it mates to the tonearm. This is indeed a "worst case" scenario. However, I would not categorically say that it is impossible for Mr. Graham to have implemented contacts that are relatively benign in their effect. I'd far rather have one set of contacts at the pivot end of a replaceable arm wand than 3 sets at the headshell end.