In a different, completely higher performance level

The Phantom III shares the same specifications as the Phantom II, but features an updated arm tube, new internal wiring, and a redesigned bearing housing. The Phantom III exceeds even the highest expectations. Compared to other tonearms on the market, the Phantom III simply performs at a higher level.

Compared to the original Phantom and Series II, the Phantom III features important differences. In addition to the refined Magneglide™ stabilizer, new internal cabling for even greater detail, and a new titanium arm stand, the Phantom III features a new pivot housing unit for even less mechanical resistance.

This assembly consists of a combination of tensioned layers of brass and tungsten, providing better resonance control and damping. A redesigned counterweight allows for a wide cartridge weight range and a lower moment of inertia. The result is greater transparency, a wider soundstage (both side-to-side and front-to-back), and a more powerful and deeper bass. The combination of these improvements results in supreme dynamics and pure musicality, while maintaining the detail, quality, and comfort features for which the previous Phantom is known.

Stability and precision

You can identify a well-balanced tonearm by measuring the tracking force at the record surface and at a higher position above the record. If the tracking force is INCREASED in the higher position, the arm has a stable balance. Our own earlier designs—the best we could make at the time—also had this limitation, as we used lateral weights to ensure lateral stability.

Other unipivots with low-hanging counterweights all exhibit this force; the lower the weight, the more counterforce is exerted. Although this technique is often touted as a "high-stability" design, it comes at the expense of consistent tracking force and linear cartridge performance. In fact, it causes tracking forces to fluctuate during playback, even with small distortions, resulting in non-linear cartridge performance and faster record wear.

If you've opted for neutral balance in a single-pivot tonearm, you must keep in mind that both the vertical and lateral planes are equally affected. Without adequate lateral stability, such a design would lack consistent, correct vertical alignment, and the pivot would tend to tilt to one side or the other (usually toward the weighted cartridge offset angle mount). This condition, of course, must be avoided.

The answer lies at the heart of the Phantom design and its unique ability to retrieve groove information, which we believe is unprecedented in tonearm design. The key to this performance is a magnetic stabilization system we've dubbed Magneglide™. In this unique, patented system, all lateral stability and some damping are provided by powerful neodymium ("rare earth") magnets arranged in a horizontal line from the tonearm's pivot point.

Combined with the fluid damping of the pivot point (similar to the 2.2 model), the Magneglide™ system allows normal vertical pivoting of the tonearm in true neutral balance with negligible friction, yet provides strong lateral stability that feels almost like a fixed bearing arm—no wobble of the arm when raised.

Furthermore, this double-damped system forces the Phantom to rotate in the correct vertical plane of the cartridge tip without any rotation when the arm is raised. No conventional unipivot system can fulfill this important geometric requirement. Even a few fixed-pivot arms fail to achieve this!