Lyra Delos and Soundsmith


I sent my Delos to soundsmith. I was wondering If I should go with boron or ruby cantilever. Any thoughts? Thanks.
couger4u

Showing 4 responses by bifwynne

Jcarr, I own the Delos. I have been told that sytlus life ranges from 1500-2000 hours on the low side to 4500-5000 hours on the high side. I do NOT find the "high side" numbers credible. So, can the Delos stylus be replaced as a stand alone fix, or is it necessary to replace the whole sylus/cantilever assembly as a unit?

If the later, I understand the Delos re-tip/exchange cost to be quite expensive.
Jcarr, I just bought a Kleos as an upgrade to my Delos. It's hard to believe that any cartridge can sound better than the Delos. I guess I'll find out on Monday when the Kleos is delivered.

If by chance you come up for air before Monday, care to give me a heads up as to what I'm in store for?? ;>')
Hello Jonathan. Installed the Kleos a couple of hours ago. Been listening to a lot of vinyl, mostly various types and stripes of 1970s rock and roll. Will be moving on to some Charlie Mingus Jazz and a selection of classical shortly. This carty is going to get the full court press.

Here's some reactions. Definition and imaging is a grade or two better than the Delos. Bass is more refined, tighter, real kick. I can feel it in my feet and listening couch.

More on overall detail and information retrieval. I definitely can hear much more information being dragged out of the grooves. It helps to really make for extremely sharp imaging. If two or more people are singing at the same time, I can picture where they "stand" in the sound-stage.

As to background noise levels, I agree that background noise is lower and I can turn the gain up with much less grain and grit. Fortunately, my phono pre (ARC PH-8) has just enough gain (58 db) to get the job done quite well. ARC previously advised me that .5 mV is as low as I should go, so I'm ok. I might get away with .4 mV, but not much less.

Btw, as to your comment re low capacitance I/Cs, I purchased custom made RCA cables from Tom Tutay, a well respected electronic design and repair gentleman. Tom said his I/Cs are very low resistance and only 19 pF per foot. So a 6 foot run should add roughly 115 or so pF, which I don't surmise is too much. FWIW, it seems that loading the carty at 100 ohms off the phono pre yields the best sound.

Last Q -- is it normal that the cantilever rides low'ish. It seems that the cartridge belly is only a millimeter or two above the record surface. Not much more.

Kudos to you and the master craftsmen who built a wonderful cartridge. Bruce

P.S. Listening to Stravinsky's Firebird, recorded on London records. Very, very nice!
Jcarr -- been playing the Kleos with some classical vinyl, e.g., H. von Karajan conducting the Berliner Philharmonic, Beethoven's 9th (DG). The Kleos does a very credible job of presenting an uncluttered soundstage. Considering all the action in the 4th movement, ... impressive. Unfortunately, I'm not lovin' the DG pressing of the 9th. I have a few better (e.g., G. Solti conducting Chicago Symph. Orchest., (London Phase 4).