Brand new Lyra Delos - skewed cantilever


Hi everybody, first of all thanks for the very insightful tips I've been able to gather over years of thread reading.

Today I am finally starting my own thread to ask a question about a brand new Lyra Delos I received this week. This is my first ever cart over 1K and I was expecting something amazing.

Well, the sound is indeed amazing! Even though after 2h30 of cart usage I am still struggling to find some meat to the bones. Sound is VERY precise but I expect it to become even better as hours go by.

However, as soon as I started aligning the cart I found the cantilever went slightly to the left. I have asked my dealer about this and he said it was nothing to worry about but I was hoping to get somebody's opinion on the forum, maybe even Jonathan Carr's. I have included photos.

Thanks a lot for your help everyone!

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anthos314

@lewm , I just got a WallyScope and plan on publishing pictures of styluses once I get use to it. 

@jcarr , Thank You for your input. I have already ordered a Channel D Seta Plus which will provide both a voltage and current input. It is a very wide band version of the circuit used in the Lino C which got uniformly rave reviews. I ordered it with an RIAA board but I also have the option of using digital RIAA correction.  I plan on ordering an Atlas lambda SL shortly. Thank god you did not mount any diamonds on it :-)

OK now I don’t know what to do. Another record, another skip.

Now I’m afraid of listening to another record for fear of damaging it.

Is there any product I could use to completely clean this stylus?

I’m wondering if it is a problem with the stylus, my records or my setup. Arm is parallel to the record, antiskate is 1.75, VTF is also 1.75 and I have tried to set the tonearm and cart very precisely.

Maybe I should send the cart back to Japan for an inspection of the stylus? I am really confused.

All my records used to be fine before I had all those skips. Now I've got to replace 2 of them! 

@anthos314 , couple of things to consider, I am a Delos user for several years.

  • The LP may be damaged and the Delos is simply picking that up since it may be digging deeper than the previous cart was able to.
  • Make hyper sure that azimuth is as perfect as can be, the Delos will perform at a very high level once you achieve this, as well tracking will be positively affected. I use a FozMeter to do this, NEVER my ears as the adjustments are so minute you need to do it electrically.
  • Regarding loading, do what JCarr states and that is make sure you are using the lowest cap cable you can get so you can load higher at the phono stage. I went from night and day performance originally using a very high cap cable (550pf) and loading at 121ohms on my Musical Surroundings Nova II. The sound was fine, I honestly thought is was really good!. Then I read an amazing thread on WBA forum that JCarr contributed to and I purchased a phono cable with 70pf/mt and set loading at 475 ohms (per the Delos instructions) and holy smokes!!! The seas parted, my jaw dropped....more resolution than I could imagine and the dynamics were insane, still are. The low end shakes my bones.....
  • To extract the most from what the Delos can do requires patience and virtually perfect setup. The New Angle design means the top of the cart must be 100% parallel with the surface for magnet/coil alignment. If you do what Lyra suggests you will be rewarded with amazing reproduction.

Enjoy!