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Lyra Delos tracking abilities

Hi everyone,

For nearly four years I have been enjoying my Lyra Delos, using it with a 510 ohm impedance load (which I found gave the best balance between stereo imaging and an organic sound).

Lately though, having spent some time listening through headphones, I heard distortion and mistracking creeping up. The cart has been used for 350 hours and it seems the tracking abilities for which it is renowned are not here anymore. I used a cheap AT-VM95e cart I had on hand just to compare the other day and the mid- and end of side distortion is actually quite similar. 

What do you think could the problem be? Apart from this distortion, the rest is fine. The cartridge was aligned as perfectly as possible, alignment was checked and rechecked, the turntable is dead level. I have tried to clean the stylus before every side, following cart designer Jonathan Carr's advice, but I am still quite disappointed as I thought the cart would track perfectly for like another 500 to 1,000 hours maybe. Now I am quite shocked at the sonic similarity between the expensive Lyra and the cheap Audio technica (apart from the highs of course).

Thanks for your help guys!

 

anthos314

Showing 1 response by elliottbnewcombjr

elliottbnewcombjr
6,071 posts
 

That stylus is specifically designed to move into proper operating position

https://lyraanalog.com/delos.php

I suspect, if the stylus is not damaged or worn, it is not moving freely/into proper position, perhaps gunk accumulated down the cantilever, near the suspension.

Ray Leung just checked and cleaned several cartridges I bought used, and surprisingly, one was clogged up with tiny metal shavings.

Thinking about it, I realized, I had taken it down to my shop, put it upside down on the workbench which is covered with carpet tiles, to view it with my shop lamp with magnifying glass, and the carpet tiles, though brushed clean, must be full of tiny metal bits from drilling, filing, and the magnets in the cartridge sucked them in while I was busy looking at the stylus tip.

I'm going back to VAS tomorrow with the latest AT160ml I bought used, and a friend's Benz Micro with a shattered stylus tip, hopefully a new tip can be attached to the existing cantilever, and another friend is bringing a cartridge that is too new to sound the way it did recently

I feel quite lucky to live only 35 minutes from VAS.

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