I am at the end of my rope, please help

You posted on VA as well, and I took a shot at it there. But now I see something that eluded me previously. You say both here and on VA that you took your measurements directly off the tonearm wiring. I now see also that you changed BOTH your tonearm AND cartridge, and the problem persisted. If you did these two things simultaneously, that's whacky. Now I see why John Ellison focused in on your ICs. IF you have been using the same pair of ICs throughout, try another set whilst keeping the second tonearm/cartridge combo in place, or simply swap connections at both ends of both ICs, one end at a time. (IOW, at the tonearm end, swap leads between L and R channels. Listen. If the weak channel does not swap sides, then swap leads between L and R channels at the preamp end. Listen.) This will turn out to be something simple and benign, I am sure. Well all of are giving just about the same advice. So we cannot be wrong, can we?

Audiorader, You are getting some questionable advice along with some good advice. Just do what Atmasphere has suggested, and you will likely be thrilled with the result. IOW, since it IS quite unlikely you have identical defects in two entirely different cartridges, you must first eliminate the much more likely possibility that you have a problem with your ICs, just as several others even before Atmasphere have suggested. This is Sherlock Holmes deductive logic.

The problem here is that Audiorader is not always responsive to the questions, which perhaps is understandable given the large number of inquiries. But as a result, we are going off in all directions basing our ideas on incorrect assumptions in some cases. Al, I asked the same question you asked re whether he is using a continuity checker or a real ohmmeter. He has not responded. However, it would seem that he is indeed using a continuity checker, which, as you, and I earlier, surmised may not distinguish the 5-ohm resistance across the Lyra Titan coils from "continuity".

If he really has changed out all the interconnect wiring without any benefit, I stand corrected. It was not clear to me that he has tried that. As far as I could tell back when I made my last post (and I do mean my LAST post), he had changed out cartridges and tonearms. The typical Grandezza I have seen in photos provides female RCA jacks into which one then inserts ones ICs of choice. It was not clear to me that he had swapped channels at both ends of his ICs. Or indeed simply inserted a fresh pair of ICs.

Dear Audiorader, You wrote, "I find it an interesting theory that the higher voltage of the meter may be reading the small resistance in the cart as continuity." Either we are experiencing a problem of semantics or you really have not quite understood what Al, Atmasphere, and I have been saying. This has nothing to do with the voltage of a meter. It has only to do with the fact that some meters, especially but not only cheap ones, have a setting that only gives you a quick reading for continuity of a circuit vs that the circuit is shorted. This could be done via an LED that glows in one color vs another, etc. But the point is that in such cases, you don't actually see a resistance reading (always in "ohms"). Meters used to check "continuity" will not "see" a 5-ohm resistance at all. Such a meter will show continuity between green and red pins or between white and blue pins on your Lyra but probably not on your MM cartridge, which likely has a much, much higher internal resistance. But if you are using a real ohmmeter or a good digital meter on the resistance setting, such that you get real numbers in ohms, then you indeed may have a problem with your Titan.

Then there is an entirely separate issue that says you might not want to try measuring resistance across the pins on a delicate MC cartridge, because doing so can burn up the coils inside. Thus, you conceivably already damaged your original Titan by taking this measurement, and indeed in that case you truly may have "continuity" between pins. So, some guys who have your interests at heart are advising you not to make this measurement on your new Titan. (In truth, before I knew better, I made this measurement several times on a Koetsu Urushi cartridge I wanted to buy, and no harm was done. The Urushi has a 4- to 6-ohm coil resistance, similar to your Titan(s).)

Audiorader, I am not sure this is even important, but when you say that the problem switched from one side to the other after you switched the pairs of leads at the cartridge clips, do you mean as measured by the Foz or did you also listen to some music and confirm that the lower output problem had now switched to the opposite channel in your whole system?

Apropos of the question of phase, I agree with Dave and Atmasphere that this could be the issue. One wonders whether your headshell is miswired so that in one channel the "hot" clip is really going to ground in the preamp, and the "ground" clip is actually going to the hot pin on the RCA plug. Thus all could appear to be correctly wired while in fact that one channel is out of phase with respect to the other. This defect also does serious damage to bass coherence and stereo imaging. It's hard to listen to, in fact. If your tt, platter, and tonearm mount are all level and plane parallel to each other, then phase error is a possible cause.

Great news for you, Audiorader. Like Almarg, I am wondering how it could be that the function of the Foz is turntable dependent. More likely there is some intermittent issue with the Foz so that it malfunctions only some of the time. I think I will keep on using my ancient Signet Cartridge Analyzer.

Digital multimeter solamente won't get you there without a lot of extra effort.