What settings do people use with Lyra cartridges?

Start with 100 Ohm. If you can get hold of variable resistance, than all you have to do is to move potentiometer till you find sweet spot, than measure your dialed resistance and affix the resistor of identified value.
Usually all you have to do is find load resistor for each channel and simply add(solder) ~100Ohm in parallel with existing 47kOhm one. If you'll have to experiment further than the relationship of total resistance in-parallel is derived with following relationship: 1/rt = 1/r1+1/r2... Therefore if r1 is very large compared to r2 than the total resistance is mostly defined by r2, the smallest resistor as current flows larger on smaller resistance.
The resulting resistance will be slightly smaller than 100Ohm, but would suffice for experiment.

If your preamp has stability problems, start with 100 ohms.

If your preamp does not have stability problems, you will be fine with the stock 47K. Loading has everything to do with the preamp and not so much to do with the cartridge when it come to low output moving coil cartridges.

The loading is killing a high frequency resonance that is ultra-sonic or ever Radio Frequency (RF) in nature. If your preamp does not care about that energy being injected into its input, the loading will have no effect. If you preamp doesn't like that energy, you will hear the effects of the loading right away.

I like 100 ohm on my Helikon SL.

I like 100 Ohms with all moving coils in general and that's what most phonostages do as default.

1000 ohms really opens it up...wider sound stage, greater 3D effect (Etna)

If you ask J Carr about loading, you will find that he says the same thing that I do.

What is happening is the cartridge inductance interacts with the tone  arm cable capacitance to form a tuned Radio Frequency (RF) circuit. It resonates when energized by the cartridge itself. This causes ultrasonic or RF energy to be injected into the input of the preamp.

If the preamp is stable with such energy you will hear no effect from loading. If the preamp is unstable and reacts poorly to such energy, the loading resistor is then used to detune the tank circuit (another way of saying 'resonant circuit') and thus it sounds better with the loading.

I have tested many LOMC cartridges- when you 'ring' them with a squarewave and then test to see what a loading resistor does to the squarewave, you see that it has absolutely no effect whatsoever at audio frequencies. Its all happening at much higher frequencies.

IOW, if loading sounds better it means the phono preamp is unstable. You might want to read this thread in which J Carr is quite active:
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?15077-Cartridge-Loading-A-Misnomer

I met up with Jonathan at the Munich show last year and we had a conversation about this- and touched on the fact that loading the cartridge might well have a negative effect on its ability to track. He touches on this in the opening post of thread at the link.

thank-you everyone.  this is great.
Sean

Hi Sean,
As everyone else said here, start at 100 ohms. I found that the MC carts of the last decade like to be loaded as high as 500 ohms, some even at 1K. It all depends on and boils down to what the system calls for, your taste, and the tonal spectral balance you are after. Afterall, audiophilia is a crazy and personal thing. I strive for a balanced, neutral and natural balance, out of the way of music with all my systems. Make sure you give those settings/resistors a bit of time to break-in before you decide that one choice is definite. I've been in this hobby for 25 years, designed and built electronics. I hope this helps.
Best regards,

Dan

Atmosphere is totally correct. With my Herron  I find it sounds best wide open 

I like my Lyra Kleos set at 100 ohms the best.

mcgal,

I agree; Use 100 ohm setting for my Kleos on both my Pass Xono and Manley Steelhead.

The 100 ohm value suggests that your preamp is unhappy with RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) at its input.

The 100 ohm value detunes the RF circuit caused by the tone arm interconnect cable and the inductance of the cartridge. As a consequence, the optimal loading value varies from cable to cable. Of course, if your preamp is stable with RFI at its input, the loading value will cease to be a concern.