Graham Phantom or Morch DP6 ?

I owned a DP-6 with 12" arm for several years and liked it very much. I eventually replaced it with a Triplanar VII.2 which I also like very much. If I were in the market now, I would try to get the DP-8. By each account I've seen, it sounds even better than the DP-6 so I suspect it's a real winner. One thing that Moerch offers that few other companies do is the flexibility of swapping arm wands of different mass so you can effectively optimize your arm for a particular cartridge without having to get a new arm.

Pani,

I understand about the 2K budget, and of course that doesn't allow the DP-8 as an option. Within your budget, I would choose the DP-6 preferably with 12" wand. Although I've never used a Graham in my system, there are three reasons I never gave any Graham models serious consideration: (1) reputation for being somewhat light in the bass, (2) reputation for not holding up well over years of use (mainly cosmetic issues I believe), and (3) too frequent changes in models. I can't say for sure if #1 or #2 is correct or still applies to current Graham models. The frequent updates to Grahams is a fact but may not bother the buyer of a used arm.

In contrast, Moerchs are very neutral sounding, very reliable and the models stay in the line for many years. They also retain their value on the used market.