Moving coil with a bit less leading edge

If the brain is rejecting something, there must be something artificial about it that one is too sensitive to. No amount of live music listening at any chair can fix that IMO.

Very interesting that I was about to start a thread on this very topic. I currently use a Lyra Delos, I have a very similar feeling that the leading edge is a bit too emphasised without enough body in the notes that follow, especially the highs which has great extension, detail, shimmer but not enough body. It is somewhat like the sound of Ribbon tweeters compared to dome tweeters. Dome tweeters usually have more body than the more audiophile sounding ribbons IME. But then the Lyra has superb dynamics and detail. Is it not possible to have the detail, dynamics with a natural sounding mids and highs? Aren't we into vinyls to savour the naturality of this medium?

Pani yes it is possible, try a good tube phono stage.

Dover, I have tried 4 phonostages and 4 cartridges in my system:

1. Leben RS30-EQ
2. Naim Stageline
3. Naim Superline
4. RCM Sensor Prelude

1. Denon 103pro
2. ZYX RS30
3. Empire EDR9
4. Lyra Delos

All within the last 3 months. Though not all at a time but still lot of overlaps. At present I have the Naim Superline and RCM stages along with ZYX, Empire and Lyra cartridges. I am really confident that the phonostages I have tried till date are superb when it comes to tone, timbre and naturalness. One can actually believe they all have tubes inside (though Leben is really tubed). The fact that Lyra has a particularly (abnormally) sizzling lacking body treble (most obvious in sounds of Cymbals) is very apparent. I have not heard anything like that in other cartridges. I have heard my RCM phonostage with ZYX 4D and R100 as well, absolutely no such problem.

What about cartridges like:

47 Labs McBee
Yamamoto YC-03s
EMT TSD15 or JSD5
Miyajima Shilabe

Is there something about AlNico magnets that all cartridges that use them normally tends to be "musical" ?

Actually sometimes very simple things when analyzed too deep seem really complex. Hifi is littered with equipments which do detail for the sake of detail, transparency at the expense of presence, soundstage at the expense of body etc etc...obviously there is market for such products. One may say, after all this is what hifi brings to the table compared to lo-fi. The point is even the cartridge world such examples are in plenty..why is it so difficult to accept that ? Why do we need to get into deep analysis of live music ? Just to defend such cartridges ? Thats not really important to someone who doesnt want to get into the hyper-detailed hifi world. Why has no one spoken about Miyabi 47 till now in this thread ?

On western classical music I too enjoy the Delos a lot. The startling dynamics this cartridge brings to the table really helps a lot in reproduction of western classical. Where I find its flaws to be prominent is while listening to classic rock (Led Zep, Knopfler) and more pop-ish recordings. I also find it lacking when playing string instruments, I hear more edge and less body.

I agree with people who say that live music has a very crisp sound but it also has a tremendous body which is very difficult to detach from the leading edge. The edge and the body are one coherent entity, we dont hear the edge separately from the body in a real instrument. It is a one whole thing which is crispy, full bodied and rich at the same time. Trying to hear the same effect at home is great but when one starts hearing the leading edge as a separate entity (due to cartridge, phono or whatever else) then it is no more natural. A reasoning that live instrument is crisp may not be a good one in such a case. Many times one has to choose between leading edge and body, that is when opinions split.

You are very fortunate ttbload.
I will definitely listen to my Lyra more.