Moonguy: All of the Lyra cantilevers are custom designs which are unique to Lyra. I personally draft every one of the drawings, and visit the Namiki and Ogura factories when they can't figure how to make what I want. We also supply Namiki and Ogura with materials, components and processing, when they don't have the required capabilities.
What you are probably thinking of is not the cantilever design, but the stylus profile. The Delos uses a Namiki Microridge stylus profile, while the Kleos, Skala, Etna and Atlas all use a stylus profile which is unique to Lyra but manufactured by Ogura.
In all cases, however, the stylus diamond blocks (width, length, height) are custom designs and specified exactly in my drawings, as are the glue joint arrangements, glue types, metallurgy etc.
How the cantilevers are mounted to the cartridge body are also different depending on the specific model. For example, a Delos or Kleos cantilever will not even fit into an Etna body.
Rather than trying to standardise on the majority of the parts, historically I've preferred to design custom parts for each cartridge model, so that each model can be uniquely itself.
Historically, Lyra has never done retips, as the suspension characteristics change over time, and doing a retip on a suspension with altered characteristics will not result in as-new performance (which is what we always strive for). Rather, we do full rebuilds or replacements with new cartridges - new replacements in most cases, rebuilds if the customer specifies that they want the same exact cartridge body. This gives us a chance to include any model improvements which may have been introduced during production.
A rebuild means that the cartridge is taken completely apart, inspected internally, deep-cleaned, and usually all of the parts other than the cartridge body will be replaced with new components, and even the cartridge body may be repolished and re-silkscreened if it has scratches or scuffs. For what it is worth, it is more work for us to rebuild a cartridge than build a new one.
Finally, Lyra pricing is determined by our distributors in each country rather than ourselves, and this is true for rebuilds as well as new purchases.
hth, jonathan carr
What you are probably thinking of is not the cantilever design, but the stylus profile. The Delos uses a Namiki Microridge stylus profile, while the Kleos, Skala, Etna and Atlas all use a stylus profile which is unique to Lyra but manufactured by Ogura.
In all cases, however, the stylus diamond blocks (width, length, height) are custom designs and specified exactly in my drawings, as are the glue joint arrangements, glue types, metallurgy etc.
How the cantilevers are mounted to the cartridge body are also different depending on the specific model. For example, a Delos or Kleos cantilever will not even fit into an Etna body.
Rather than trying to standardise on the majority of the parts, historically I've preferred to design custom parts for each cartridge model, so that each model can be uniquely itself.
Historically, Lyra has never done retips, as the suspension characteristics change over time, and doing a retip on a suspension with altered characteristics will not result in as-new performance (which is what we always strive for). Rather, we do full rebuilds or replacements with new cartridges - new replacements in most cases, rebuilds if the customer specifies that they want the same exact cartridge body. This gives us a chance to include any model improvements which may have been introduced during production.
A rebuild means that the cartridge is taken completely apart, inspected internally, deep-cleaned, and usually all of the parts other than the cartridge body will be replaced with new components, and even the cartridge body may be repolished and re-silkscreened if it has scratches or scuffs. For what it is worth, it is more work for us to rebuild a cartridge than build a new one.
Finally, Lyra pricing is determined by our distributors in each country rather than ourselves, and this is true for rebuilds as well as new purchases.
hth, jonathan carr