Lyra Atlas experiences

Ninetynine, thanks, interesting photos, I never thought about placing the digital weight on the side. How do you measure?

My test record is the Hifi news analogue test LP, Producer's cut (HFN 002).

I will test more tonight, looking for good mono and quad records for tuning by ear.

Listening tests make me think, better go back to the SME tuning, or a bit below .

Testing, first, Lotta Lenya sings Kurt Weill (mono 1960ies heavy vinyl version), and next, Tangerine Dream: Alpha Centauri (1971). It has been argued that quadrophonic recordings are best, to set the anti-skating. I don’t have the quad version ot Alpha Centauri (twin virgin label), only a stereo version, but this works well also.

In both cases, turning off the light and just listening, I tended to go down on the antiskating scale - it can be adjusted while playing, on the SME V - and towards a setting more like the factory default (calibrated scale), to get the best sound. Listening for the holographics especially (Tangerine Dream very good at that point), I went towards a weight equivalent 1.7 (corresponding to the 1.72 g Atlas weight) or even a bit down, to 1.5 or 1.4 on the scale. Much lower than the HFN test record results (2.7 - 3). I have to recheck - this is my impression so far.

Happy listening!

Here some info from Christian Rintelen:

7. Adjust the skating force to zero and prepare yourself for
a mean experience. The right channel will not show dynamics
at all; it will sit in the corner totally bored and ignoring
you. The left channel will sit in its corner like an evil
ghost, considering to attack you in the next moment. It will
sound very dynamic in a way that numbs the left half of your
body. However, the dynamics will be nightmare-like
artificial.

Now you increase the skating force to a quarter and then to
a half of the expected value. You will sense that the right
channel comes more-and-more alive and the left channel
sounds less dynamic, intimidating and artificial. This
reduction is less than the increase of dynamics in the right
channel; the while system becomes more dynamic.

You increase now the skating compensation by *very* small
steps until you reach a point where left and right channel
sound equally dynamic. Then you increase further very small
steps; both channels will grow more dynamic. One step too
far and both channels loose their dynamics completely and
sound dead. So you go back to the position where dymics and
microdynamics were maximum.

I mailed SME, and got a clear answer: do not use the HFN test record with the SME V arm. Instead, start from the equivalent of the weight, and fine tune by ear, from there. OK! I am glad that my listening tests the last evenings led to the same conclusion.

Ninetynine - thank you, I will try this some more, may make more sense now.

I notice, last evening, I ended up at 1.3