I own a Basis Debut with the vacuum feature and a Vector arm. I like the combination a lot. A friend has a Basis 2500 with two arms mounted on it, a Phantom and the Vector arm. He MUCH preferred the Vector arm for both a Lyra Titan and a Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge. I did not hear the comparison myself, and thought that the Phantom playing the Titan sounded pretty good.
Someone mentioned that A.J. Conti preferred the older Graham arms to the Phantom. That is an interesting comment because I know another person in the industry that also MUCH preferred the older Graham arms (thinks the Phantom sounds cold and lifeless). I guess that there is no such thing as an absolute improvement -- a change is bound to be negative for some peoples' taste.
Your current equipment is very good. That makes it hard to suggest any obvious improvements -- whether something improves the sound will be more a matter of taste/system synergy -- i.e., nothing is unequivocally better.
As a Basis owner, I would say the most obvious first step is to get a new belt. The current model of belt is machined to much tighter tolerances and sounds great. Some would argue that the belt replacement has more positive impact on the performance of Basis tables than the very expensive speed controller (I can't say so myself since I bought both at the same time).
I use to own a Graham 1.5t (the "t" denotes the use of tungsten side weights). I never went the route of upgrading the arm. I believe that the upgrades involve replacement of the armtube with the ceramic armtubes from the 2.2 model. It might be something to look into if you can find the armtubes at used prices.
Certainly a good phonostage is a possible upgrade suggestion. But, you need to factor in the substantial cost of another high quality interconnect. Hence, a worthwhile improvement may be quite expensive.
Someone mentioned that A.J. Conti preferred the older Graham arms to the Phantom. That is an interesting comment because I know another person in the industry that also MUCH preferred the older Graham arms (thinks the Phantom sounds cold and lifeless). I guess that there is no such thing as an absolute improvement -- a change is bound to be negative for some peoples' taste.
Your current equipment is very good. That makes it hard to suggest any obvious improvements -- whether something improves the sound will be more a matter of taste/system synergy -- i.e., nothing is unequivocally better.
As a Basis owner, I would say the most obvious first step is to get a new belt. The current model of belt is machined to much tighter tolerances and sounds great. Some would argue that the belt replacement has more positive impact on the performance of Basis tables than the very expensive speed controller (I can't say so myself since I bought both at the same time).
I use to own a Graham 1.5t (the "t" denotes the use of tungsten side weights). I never went the route of upgrading the arm. I believe that the upgrades involve replacement of the armtube with the ceramic armtubes from the 2.2 model. It might be something to look into if you can find the armtubes at used prices.
Certainly a good phonostage is a possible upgrade suggestion. But, you need to factor in the substantial cost of another high quality interconnect. Hence, a worthwhile improvement may be quite expensive.