Lyra Atlas experiences


A few years ago, I invested in a Lyra Atlas cartridge / pickup. I have moved up, from Lyra Clavis in the early 2000s and Lyra Titan i later. The Atlas was expensive, but I have not looked back. Yet I wonder, can something more be done, to optimize the Atlas, in my system, and others. How can this remarkable pickup run its best. What are the best phono preamp and system matches. Should the system be rearranged. Have anyone done mods or DIYs to their systems to get the "reception" right? What happened? Comments welcome. You dont need to own a Lyra Atlas but you should have heard it, to join this discussion. Comments from the folks at Lyra are extra welcome - what is your experience.
Oystein
o_holter

Showing 5 responses by downunder

’This is an easy one for me. The biggest leap in sonic improvement for my Lyra Atlas has been to put a Thales Simplicity II tonearm onto my TW Acustik AC-3.

My TW turntable now sounds the best it has ever sounded, even my tube phono stage sounds much better now.

I am now a believer in tangential tracking tonearms.

cheers
Hi o_holter

Yes those Southers/Clearaudio's were known to have problems - I thiunk they work a lot better now.

  The execution and build quality of Simplicity II is superb - tracks perfectly.  The clarity, directness and stability the tonearm brings to music is uncanny.     My other tonearm is Graham Phantom.

  cheers
Hi Raul

thanks,  That is why I did not mention Linear tracking :-)

It is quite amusing that many arguments over different alignment curves like Baer, Loef and Stevenson and what sounds best.
  Here we have a tonearm that is proven with maths and splendid execution to reduce tracking error to 0.0006 % vs over 2% for all other alignment curves.

  yes, I am a believer,  as you can hear the difference in clarity and purity of the lower % tracking error.

cheers
@rauliruegas    personally after owning the A90, I would never touch an expensive Ortofon cartridge with replicant 100 stylus again. @ around 1000 hours playtime, it does not last long enough.

  Lyra and Dyna cartridges last at least 2500 to 3000 hours easily.

  I owned an Atlas since 2012 and the last 2 months the Atlas SL after Lyra rebuilt my worn Atlas.
  Atlas has incredible life, dynamics and attack - but in certain systems can be a double edged sword.  Atlas SL is a little different where is it seems to be even more pure sounding so a little more forgiving.  

  I prefer both Atlas models to the Etna SL which is excellent but a little too forward in the vocal range and misses out on low bass but has excellent tone.
That is 50% off a new Atlas. You get a brand new Atlas as Lyra do a complete rebuild - the only thing reused is the body.
Sounds like a good deal to me for one of the best cartridges one can buy.

Rebuild costs are similar % in Australia.