(A bit off-topic, my apologies): Interesting the cables you have (as well as for the amplifier section), the same as mine except for the speakers cable: did you compare the Phantom with Naca5 before the purchase?
Living room is about 60 sq. meters (combined with open dining room section). I preferred the Phantoms to NACA5 in my home office set up as I found them more detailed and clear and the NACA5 bass emphasis became a bit much. The Audiovector cables in the living room were bought used at about 1/4 of retail but I may at some point switch to Phantoms there too. The Phantoms are really excellent and terrific VFM.
Nice one Tony. I have no intention of selling mine, quite proud of it really. I want to upgrade it somehow over the coming years but I’m undecided what way to go.
Michell’s own Focus arm never seemed to be very highly thought of. I never heard one, but I did see one once and it didn’t look that inspiring. Focus with the S shaped Linn Basik seemed more common. There was also a Spanish (?) clone of the Focus - ‘Audio Linear’ or something like that.
I might be wrong, but from memory, I think that the tonearm that was sold with the original Focus might have been the Transcriptors/Michell Vestigial tonearm.
The problem is that at the time of its introduction designers were looking for lighter and lighter tracking weights, although the industry eventually went the other way with much heavier MC cartridges and very much heavier tracking weights.
I believe the Vestigial arm was designed to (allegedly) track at ultra low tracking weights down to 1/10th of a gram. It was thought (incorrectly) at the time that this would lead to lower record wear.
I believe it was even more difficult to set up than the Transcriptors 9" Fluid (Unipivot) arm I had on my old Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference turntable.
The Michell Focus One originally came with its own damped unipivot tonearm. Later it could be bought with armboards suitable for SME or Linn fittings. IIRC, it was the Skeleton and Saturn that came with the Vestigial arm.
You never considered upgrading to the more expensive Tecnoarm? Here in Sweden, my dealer recommends a cartridge from Japanese Hana that is available in different price ranges.
It sounds very reasonable with a cost around £ 700 for a suitable cartrige. Hana cartriges cost from £ 400 up to £ 1000 depending on the model, so they also fit well into the price range.
It was the only extra my dealer really pushed.
His " standard" package is the Rb330 from Rega and the Benz Micro ACE sl. And of course Techno weight.
Most people rave about it. All I can say is that my Gyro se with the bits above into my Trichord Diablo phono stage is a great combination and often my first choice source.
Certainly has made me relisten to a lot of older vinyl that I thought was poorly recorded. It wasn’t for most of it. A great vinyl source.