Lyra Delos or Hana ML

I have owned the Delos, Hana SL, and Benz Wood SL. All went into a tubed phono preamp and tubed line stage. Had  both SS and Tube poweramps at various times with this set up, but mostly tubes.

The Delos was not warm or lush. It was detailed and too  bright for me despite the tube gear it ran into. Perhaps it did not work well with the fixed loading on my phonostage. I could never relax into the music. Sold it quickly and it was a big disappointment after all the great reviews.

The Hana was very decent, fairly neutral, and a rather good value.

The Benz had all the detail of the Hana but warm and relaxed sounding.Also much more dynamic than the Hana.  A lovely cartridge but the suspension collapsed prematurely. I had the dealer replace it for a new one which I subsequently sold as I was concerned about their quality control. 

All these were on a VPI Aries I turntable with a VPI 10 unipivot arm. I saw a response above suggesting a Grado but it was susceptible to hum on the VPI and I've heard that it's not a good match to Rega tables for the same reason.

Hopefully , this helps you decide.

As you are considering the Delos as well as the Hana ML, I assume your phono preamp is capable or running low output moving coil cartridges. If that is the case and you go the Hana route, consider a low output model as they apparently do sound better. 

The Delos can be finicky as I found out when i first set it up.  Its not very forgiving.  once you have it set up properly, for the money, its a great value.  I think it sounds better than the Kleos which costs much more.

My only advice on this choice is that you (or someone that can do it for you) need to set that Lyra PERFECT to get the best sound out of it. Even the smallest adjustment is audible (my experience).

I suggest a USB microscope and a MINTLP protractor. MINT will make you a custom protractor based on the tonearm specs and mounting distance.

It’s frosted glass and mirror with lines that are a fraction of a human hair so to get the tip of that diamond on the arc, the microscope is a huge help. Plugs right into your phone or tablet.

Good luck with your decision

When you get it dead on (including VTA) you will know it.

@alvinnir2 if you ultimately sold the replacement Benz, what are you running now? I’m about to pull the trigger on the Benz Wood SL (replacing a Hana SL) 

@paulgardner 

This is likely not the answer you wanted to hear. After some upgrades to the digital  end of my system, I ultimately sold all my analog  gear, All at top dollar, including all my LPs. All sold within a day or 2 of my listing them.

Thought I'd never say it but, I don't miss it one bit. And I  have been a vinyl spinning audiophile for over 50 years.