Kleos Sibilance

Let the cartridge break in before doing the audiophile dance and spending money on something that will fix itself.
The cartridge needs at least 30 hours to settle in and become stable, make sure your table room temp is at 70 degrees because if it is lower it will never meet Lyra's specs. When setting the VTF remember, the arm must be parallel to the platter when sitting on the gauge and then made parallel to the record when playing, otherwise what you set is not what you get. If you need it use a little damping and if you need it a bit of mechanical anti-skate.

Serious business, never believe what a dealer tells you, they are a profit driven item and need the money to live, therefore what they sell or have in the back room is the best!! Another important point, they want to sell what you cannot get from another dealer at a discount price so that you will need them!!!!!!!

Notice that the million dollar system in Stereophile this month has a Classic feeding it, notice that HP says the Classic challenges the $150K table in house, notice the Classic was product of the year in Germany, England, France, and 2 Golden ears in the US. Notice the Rim Drive was product of the year in Stereophile. Notice - we do no advertising!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our distributor in Japan is Esoteric and was Scan-Tech for 10 years, but they can't hear either!

But what do they know, believe a dealer that makes money on the sale instead!!

The big things will be the break in and the temperature. VPI gets many calls a week from customers in colder climates that have the same problems. I use a lamp over my table in the winter to maintain a solid 70-72 degrees and have never had a problem.

HW

I really hope no one is reading this but the morons posting on it. It is almost impossible to get everything wrong but you guys have figured out how to do it. Thank you Stingreen and Markd51 for some sanity.

1- For the wise guy dealer - I have no financial interest in this thread; I didn't have to make another tonearm or turntable or record cleaner 10 years ago let alone worrying about the money now. You’re speaking out of your rear end.

2- The JMW-9 is the exact geometry or the Rega, the Rega drops into the hole cut in the chassis and works perfectly - more bad information.

3- There is no such thing as a standard mounting - every damn arm is different unless the company is actually trying to make it easier for customers to use other arms if they want to - like VPI did with the JMW-9 mounting. We have over 50 mounting templates for different arms, all different.

4- Robob can buy whatever table he feels like buying and I hope he enjoys it but if he cannot get a Kleos to work in the arm he has then he has no concept of how to setup a unipivot. It is different than a fixed bearing arm.

5- Putting a Shelter or any cartridge with a compliance of less than 12 on an arm with the mass of the 9 or 9 Signature is asking for trouble. Then when the combination needs weights or damping complaining about the mess someone else made for them. There is a reason we recommend Dynavectors, they work perfectly in the arms. BTW, the Lyras work perfectly also and we recommend them all the time. Would it work and sound better in the Classic arm, absolutely, can you make it work in the 9, I can!!
The only reason you make a low compliance (less than 12) cartridge with a weight of less than 9 grams is because you do not care about your customers problems.

6- Temperature is a major factor in cartridge tracking; ask J Carr or Peter at SoundSmith.

7- If you want help with anything that is VPI just send an e-mail. We are very busy (must be all those customers buying our lousy arms) selling tables in 57 countries around the world and the US so it may take a few days for a long answer but you will get answered.

8- Do you think it makes any sense to compare a tonearm that costs double the price of the whole table the customer has???

9- We get 4-5 e-mails a week from customers sold the wrong cartridge for there tonearm, one that requires major work to make right. Isn’t easier to send us an e-mail and ask us what works perfectly in the arm we make!!!!!

It's late and I need to stay off these forums, too much bad information from people with little experience and not so subtle agendas.

HW