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Lyra Helikon and Phd owners please

I have recently upgraded the cartridge from a Sumiko Blue Point 2 to a Lyra Helikon on a Rega RB 300 arm and Michell Gyrodec TT. The phonostage is a Sutherland Phd.With the Sumiko cart getting the Phd to wake up was a non issue :gently stroking the stylus, perhaps once or twice was enough and the Phd was ready to sing. With the Helikon nothing seems to work other than letting the stylus ride on the lp for 30/45 seconds.This is bothersome but not a big deal.Have tried setting the sensitivity control on the Phd( counter clockwise to increase it)but this only results in the yellow light (indicating that the cart is searching for a signal) coming on in the middle of a record and refusing to go off.
I wonder if any Lyra/Phd owners have encountered similar issues and what the possible soloution could be.
Many thanks and cheers
sunnyboy1956

Showing 2 responses by sunnyboy1956

sunnyboy1956's avatar
sunnyboy1956 OP
424 posts
 
Hi Mark/All,
Many thanks for all your advice/suggestions. Immediately after installing the Helikon, there was a big drop in gain. I had to crank the gain settings on the Phd to max, ie 60db. Currently(sic!) and I don't have any issues with loudness or gain. The best that I have managed to do with the Helikon is to reduce the wake up time to around 23/30 seconds or so.If I tweak the sensitivity further the yellow light stays on which I assume is not good news for the power management system in the Phd.
As I said earlier this is bothersome but only for the first lp.The cart loading is set at 47k ohms as recommended in the Lyra manual.
As an aside the the Helikon sounds heavenly.
Wow this is a great feeling sitting halfway across the globe knowing someone somewhere is concened and willing to invest the time and effort to help find a solution.
Cheers and bye for now.
sunnyboy1956's avatar
sunnyboy1956 OP
424 posts
 
Hi Mark,
Many thanks for all your help and advise. As I mentioned in an email, I not sure how a higher gain board will help given that the output of the Lyra is fixed at 0.5v(I checked the manual).A higher gain setting on the Phd will only make life easier for the main preamp(CJ CT5).
Cheers
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