LYRA DELOS CARTRIDGE TOO BRIGHT, THIN AND SHRILL SOUNDING

I was guessing that Pindac's native language might be German.

Jafant itvwas a Shanling T200 and it sounded awesome until the decoding board slowly and very slowly started dying. Every month an additional 3 to 6 or so CDs would not play ever again. It was like I had a virus in my CD collection but the modder said it was a known issue about the decoding board in that player. Sadly Shanling does not support it. Curiously when I retired it 5 years ago it still would play one and just one CD out of my 500 plus CDs. The best of the Mamas and Papas!!! The Shanling looked cool though. It reminded me if a moon station I built in the Boy Scouts!!  😆

i just did a comparison between my lyra delos and similarily priced ortofon cadenza blue.  have had the delos in my system for a few months.  
used to love the sound of the Cadenza Blue.  The Lyra has a much more dynamic colorful sound with a larger sound stage.  
i loved the sound of the Ortofon but it now sounds flat and dull by comparison.  
The Delos is the real deal.  note: Delos has 60 hrs.  

Being a Ortofon user myself it is pleasing to see a Comparison.
An noticed Increase in the Soundstage is in my experience a trait that is an attractor.  

got a fantastic and very detailed note from @jcarr about a question i had re Delos on Triplaner. 

Ozzy, we long since left the OP and the community of Delos and better Lyra owners have found some ground, fertile in places to gather…turns out it is here….

This was an interesting thread to me, myself having sold good stereo equipment and having nearly 5 decades experience as an audiophile. First lesson from the thread is how important synergy is. Second lesson is just how tweaks and complex playing records at a high level is. My shaky hands don’t allow me to tweak the way I used to with phono cartridge and arm adjustments, hence my relief at the vast improvement in digital reproduction over the last several decades. 

Tweaky and complex, I meant to say

But it isn’t tweaky  and complex, if you establish a routine and follow it, and leave it alone once you have set it up to your satisfaction. It is tweaky and complex to people who cannot stop tweaking or who approach the issues inflexibly.

what lewn said. totally agree.


if the proper understanding of all parameters is done correctly there is no reason to be tweaky

there are 2 kinds of people I know . set correctly and done within the hour. or keep tweaking for months and months and years. guess which one sounds better? and why. 

For reference I just learned something about my Delos the other night-
A new recording was sounding especially bad- edgy and not fun to listen to.
I experimented with everything.  
I made a nice improvement by lowering the gain on my phono preamp for the Delos to 52db down from 58db.
58db is just a touch too much for the .6mv Delos.
52 db is usually too little gain for a .6mv cartridge but it sounds fantastic, much better.  Did not lose any dynamics either which was a surprise.    

So it appears that the Delos likes gain on the low side for its output. 
Try it if you haven't already.  

I enjoyed one for years. Great synergy with the Well Tempered Amadeus. 

Finally nailed the Delos after months of tuning.
learned previously- 
*likes lower gain than usual
*alignment is critical
*level the top of the headshell, tonearm level is not relevant.  

today i finally tried a low capacitance phono cable (50pf per meter). 
this allowed me to set the loading at 475 ohms, per the manual cable capacitance and loading are very much related.  
my previous cable was 110 pf which liked 200 ohms loading.  
the cartridge sounds better, its best actually, with 50pf cables and 475 ohm loading.  sound is cleaner, no trace of ringing, more neutral and natural.  
a very complicated cartridge that may not sound good with typical MC cartridge settings.  

I have been using Lyra Delos and Kleos over the last decade to my entire satisfaction. They were my favourite cartridges. 1 year ago I bought a new turntable / tonearm combination. Unfortunately I could not get the Kleos to perform in the new setup, it sounded flat and thin. In my opinion the Lyras are outstanding cartridges in the right setup and when tuned in carefully. They will extract everything from good recordimgs and comp,ex orchesteas. With lesser recordings I find warmer sounding cartidges more pleasant. Highly recommended in the right setup.

I changed to a Benz Micro Gullwing which is easier to setup and has a bit more flesh on the bone. 

Last time I had a Lyra, it was the Parnassus, years ago, TOTL at the time. "If you want the best, this is it," the Dealer told me. Sold it fast.

I find myself agreeing with Chakster’s view – I’ve had MM and MI languishing in my drawer for years, while I was MC-only. Now I enjoy them more than my MCs. I still have a couple I have tried yet, but current favorites are:

AKG P8ES (old model)
Pickering XSV/3000
Stanton 881S
Empire 2000Z (very exciting)

I just installed a NOS AT ML150-OCC, and liking it so far.

And this one is a "Franken-cartridge" – a Grace F8 body with a Shure V-15 VMR stylus. The F8 is identical internally to the more lauded F9E, so it brings that sensuous full sound – while the Shure stylus is far more advanced than any of Grace styli I had – I had 5 Grace carts at one time, different models, but a burglary ended that chapter.

I didn’t like Shure carts at all – their watchword was "flat" but they just sounded dead to me. But give them credit: they had far more resources for R&D, and it showed in their late stylus design. So the Grace + VMR is pretty spectacular. It’s very fortuitous the stylus fits perfectly, though the plastic holder needs some Dremeling. (And it has that little damping brush too – I haven’t made my mind up on that yet.)

All of them are NOS, so with some TLC I have a lot of years with them left to enjoy.

Maybe I’ll try an MC again soon, and switch loyalties again. I don’t think of myself as "fickle" but who knows. I’m having my Rosewood Signature retipped, and I’ll have to at least try it – so maybe that’ll start a renewed MC "phase"...