Lyra Titan i - in focus?

O-holter, What alignment protractor are you using? I used to own an SME V and now have the SME V-12. In each case, I had a Mint LP protractor made for my specific arm/cartridge combination and found that it does improve alignment over the standard SME template.

Have you also played with cartridge loading and gain on your phono stage? These and VTF can also effect results.

To Syntax's point, the SME V is effective at draining energy away from the cartridge down the arm tube and into the armboard. I also removed the finger lift from my arm which in theory at least can introduce additional vibration at a very bad location.

Very slightly forward on the V and very slightly back in the V-12. But perhaps more importantly, it showed at the null points that the cantilever was not quite tangent to the groove, so I had to twist the cartridge in the headshell and it made a real difference.

I was able to get all the movement I needed within the existing mounting holes. My rough guess is that I rotated the cartridge about it's zenith axis perhaps one (1) degree or 0.2 mm at it's rear edge. It's hard to say, but I rotated it as far as possible within the allowance and the cantilever lined up perfectly with the parallel guide lines at the two null points on the MINT LP protractor.

I also noticed that the stylus was off the arc by about 0.5 mm at the lead in groove, but appeared on the arc near the spindle. I could not see this but I could with the 10X loupe that is provided. So it took a bit of back and forth in very tiny increments to get it all lined up.

The overall sound became more clear and detailed and there is less tracking error at the inner grooves. The standard SME template is close, but the Mint is more precise. The problem is that one has to know EXACTLY the effective length of the arm (pivot to stylus) and that is nominal in the SME case because the mounting hole to stylus distance varies by cartridge sample and then you have to account for the headshell angle to do the math.

It was complicated, but I sent the figures to MINT and got the protractor.

Now, remember that I'm not suggesting that this is the solution to your particular issue. It is only a suggestion. VTA/SRA is also important as is VTF. Some would argue azimuth is also, but the SME V/V-12 don't have azimuth adjustability.

I also set the antiskate to the SME recommended setting corresponding to the VTF. The dial is calibrated. Others suggest that is too high a setting. I listened a lot to different settings and found the recommended setting sounded best in my system.

You also need to have clean records and a clean stylus.