Lyra Delos or Helicon versus Soundsmith Zephyr

I have owned quite a few moving coil cartridges, and have heard quite a few more.
About 8 months ago a deal came along for a new SoundSmith Ebony Boheme, and I decided to buy it.
After about 30 hours of very casual listening, I started to listen very seriously.
This SoundSmith Boheme does something the moving coil cartridges just seem to miss, after living with them for a while.
When Ilisten to the Boheme, besides sounding fantastic, it is also so relaxing. I feel like i am listening to the master tape, and not an LP record.

I am a paid musician as a second livelihood (bass player, stand up and electric) and the SoundSmith just sounds like real music to me.
Voices just sound so real with this cartridge.

My two cents. Bruce

Hi Maxh, i had a Kleos too. (Delos before) I am absolute with you. The Lyra´s plays so wide and fast, but the warmth and musicality is not their strength.

I agree that the Lyras are not warm carts.  I would say fast and neutral.

I have a TNT jr with flywheel, ET 2.5 tonearm going into a Herron VTPH2a phono stage.  I had a lyra Delos for a year, broke the cantilever and bought another based on how much I liked it.  Overall I used Delos' for about 4 years.  A year and a half ago I switched to a Soundsmith Zephyr.  It took a lot of effort to get Azimuth and VTA dialed in, but once I did, I was hearing details I've never heard before, and also got that "Master tape" impression a term I've used myself in discussing its presentation. The Zephyr gets out of the way, virtually no mechanical artifacts. Perhaps that does bring it closer to digital, but I would think in a good way.  Both cartridges were set up with the Feickert system FWIW.  When the old body Paua's went on sale, I sprung for one of those, even though there are still plenty of hours left on the Zephyr.  I've had the Paua for about a 6 weeks now and I'm still dialing it in.  Resolution is astounding, the soundstage is bigger and more integrated, dynamics are scary good, but I'm still dealing with some minor frequency balance issues. Tube rolling is making a difference, I'm trying for a little more warmth.