Has anyone tried the new Lyra Kleos?

I have a Delos on a VPI Classic JWM 10.5i arm and I couldn't be happier. It was my first unipivot arm and I'm dumber than a sack of hammers, but I got it to work extremely well.

And the unipiviot isn't wobbly when it's in action, only when it's off the album. If it wobbles while in play, you've got problems.

I read the laundry list of complaints/problems guys have...IGD, sibilance, hum, skipping, harsh/muted/ highs, too much/not enough bass, what have you...and I just don't have any of that.

If the table/cart vanished tomorrow, I'd replace it with the same thing. Tomorrow.

My ONLY gripe, and having Mr. Carr in on the thread, is that the Delos is so tall that the VTA adjustment on my arm is pretty much all the way up to get things level that way, and that's bare metal platter. Which is ironic considering the only negative threads I'd seen on the Delos were based on "low rider" cantilevers.

And that might well be a VPI complaint, that they need to put a little more positive VTA adjustment into this arm assembly. I can't run a mat without the cartridge end of the arm being higher than the pivot end.

That said, I still think it's a great combo.

"I read the laundry list of complaints/problems guys have...IGD, sibilance, hum, skipping, harsh/muted/ highs, too much/not enough bass, what have you...and I just don't have any of that."

I meant that as a general list of complaints, not as a specific list of complaints towards this particular pairing.

P.S. I wish I could become a full member so I didn't have to wait a couple of hours before my posts appear. In this case I realized right off that I could have worded it better, I didn't want anybody to get the wrong idea about my previous post.

Jr_w,

Have you experienced the Delos with other tables or arms for comparison?
Also, I am curious, how have you got your anti-skating set up?

Thank you for your encouraging testimony,
- Dave

No, I have only used it on this table. I did use a less expensive MM cart (AT440MLa) on the table for a bit while waiting on the Delos. Phono stage is Pass XP-15.

Since this was my first unipivot arm, I did go through some trials and tribulations getting it set up, and I removed the arm a few times to do the physical parts swapping.

When I first started using it I didn't use the anti-skate, but I think removing the arm a few times flexed the leads enough that they no longer provided sufficient anti-skate on their own. I ended up applying the bare minimum anti-skate via the weight/lever/line mechanism. I might even be able to remove that now, I only had an issue with a single track on a Steely Dan album, but that album is one that I have settled on as a reproduction benchmark that I can detect subtle changes to the setup with. It's flawless now and sounds excellent even with the touch of AS, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to revisit "Can't Buy a Thrill" with no AS since everything should be settled in by now.

I need to emphasize that I am certainly no expert on any of this, so please don't take any of my postings as doctrine. Just an anecdote. The main point was that if an idiot such as myself can get this kind of performance from a Lyra Delos on this arm/table, I see nothing inherently incompatible between the two. I'd imagine the Kleos would behave similarly as far as mechanical setup is concerned.

Hi Jr W:

In past years we made physically shorter cartridges, like the Clavis DC. or the Parnassus DCt. With these, we sometimes received complaints from owners of certain tonearms such as the SME V and IV. The short cartridge height allowed the tapered armtube to touch down on the LP midway through a side, which was a most unpleasant surprise to the listener when it happened.

Since the Titan, Dorian and Argo, I have attempted to standardize on our cartridge dimensions, to make it easier for our users to change from one Lyra model to another. Those dimensions are as follows: in the vertical plane, between 17 and 18mm from tonearm headshell surface to stylus (with VTF applied), and in the horizontal plane, from 9.52mm (3/8 inch) from mounting screw centers to the stylus.

The only occasions when I have allowed myself to deviate from the above is when the size of the body mechanisms were too large to fit without enlarging the cartridge body. Fortunately, that has not happened in production yet - only for prototype cartridges.

In my recent designs, I have built various internal mechanisms into the cartridge body, and this has required a certain amount of physical space. It would not have been possible to package the mechanisms of the Kleos, for example, into a shorter cartridge, and even so I needed to use shorter components for parts of the body structure than what I normally use.

kind regards, jonathan carr