Lyra Atlas experiences

Downunder - I remember, trying to tweak the Souther arm, we got the feeling, although it looked nice in theory, it was hard to achieve in practice, whatever we did, the cart scated around in the groove (and as you can imagine my rather over-controlled SME V cured that). Happy for you, if the new Thales design works well.
Oystein

I use a kuzma 4pt for my Atlas. Have had a range of carts in the Kuzma, Benz, airtight, vdh etc. The Atlas is the best sounding, excellent dynamics, tonality and tracking.

I did have a sme 20 with the the smeV arm, but this was previous to me obtaining the Lyra. Obivously I found the  Kuzma TT (and ref313 arm I had initially) preferable  to the sme,  the 313 also tracked better than the sme with the same cartridge.

I use a mini oscilloscope with the set up to adjust azimuth. 

Have tried various phono stages with the Lyra, eg. Dartzeel, Thoress - I use the Ypsilon with Lyra's Erodition MC step up. I found the Erodition suits the Lyra better than the Ypsilon MC20 step up.

Dctom - Thanks for interesting information. I also enjoy the Atlas. For me, each step up in the Lyra line over the last twenty years - Clavis, Clavis DC, Titan, Titan i, Atlas - has been worth it. The Atlas shines through even when some components aren't optimal.

I used the SME V on a (modded) VPI-HW19 player for several years, and although it worked ok, the arm matches better with the Hanss T30 player I use now. It gives the arm a more rigid platform, more in line with the philosophy behind the SME V. I can compare since I have DSD recordings from vinyl using the two players with the same arm and Lyra cart. There is no doubt that the Hanss benefits the music (although the tonality is good in the HW19, pitch and stability is better in the Hanss, music seems to get a higher resolution with a greater level of detail). So, getting the Hanss player in a sense was the biggest "tweak" I did to the Atlas (and is much recommended if one can get it for a reasonable price). The T30 has two motors, six thin drive belts, heavy sandwich construction, magnetic bearing, 10 kg aluminium platter - and I think all of these contribute to the result.

Some people don't like the sound in this type of heavy platter, including Paul Seydor in the Absolute sound (2012), reviewing the T-60, a bigger version of the T-30. Seydor had a lot of nice things to say, and only one critique - he heard a certain metallic coloration or glare, and preferred using the player with a platter mat on top. He used a Graham Phantom II arm with an Ortofon Windfield. (Review here: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/hanss-t-60-turntable-and-graham-phantom-ii-supreme-tonearm/ )

I understand what Seymour was writing about. I can hear a bit of this glare too. Yet I mainly prefer the T-30 (with the SME V and Atlas) without a mat.

Since this may of be interest to others, and to be sure, I did a new test, over a week, trying out the best platter mats I have tried so far, the Japanese fo.Q rs-912 (recommended by Seymour - a set of two mats, thin and thick).

However, my conclusion is: I like the sound better without a mat - even with some "glare". This goes for most of my records. Sometimes, however, the LP is so hard-sounding (and engaging platter resonances, I imagine) that the music sounds better with one of the rs-912 mats.

Like Seymour, I find that the thin mat (with holes) works best; the thick (or the two combined) is too much.  So for example, when I want to play my worn mono copy of Dave Clark 5 In Session, the mat makes it more bearable. It functions a bit like a filter, and also goes some way into refining the sound. However, listening more closely, I find that I lose information. This is a no-no for me. So - even with a bit of glare, I prefer the "full" sound from the record directly on the platter.

I use a heavy (1kg) TT brass record weight rather than the light-weight clamp that came with the Hanss. This, also, is a bit of plus and minus (I miss the screw-down clamp design on the VPI), but mainly, it gives the music more body, it sounds fuller, and also reduces the glare a bit.

For a period, I tried damping the platter on the bottom, using Gladen Aero-Butyl, but the Hanss distributor warned me against this, since even if I applied the damping material evenly, it would still interfere with optimal balancing of the platter. So I took it off, again (quite some work). It did help the metallic resonance, but not so much - I don't hear a big difference without it. Maybe a sandwhich or composite construction would cure it better. With the VPI, I had the heavy (HW-19 version 3 or so) lead platter, but even if it was stable and gave deeper bass than the ones before it, I liked the sound better in the (hw-19 v 4) Black Knight platter.

It seems typical for the Atlas that kind of problem is less prominent than with earlier Lyra's like the Titan. At least, this is my experience. The Clavis was much "harder" than the Titan, and the Titan was harder than the Atlas. Hard in both senses - sounding hard, and hard to get right, to adjust to optimal sound. It feels like the Atlas is more "forgiving" of resonances, sibilances, etc. along with almost no mistracking - even as it is extracting more information from the groove. This is impressive. Even when using a "lowly" phono stage like I do now, the cartridge gives me clear informattion, what sounds best.

 

Platter mats - well, maybe too off topic....no reaction so far.

So, back to a main issue raised earlier in the debate. The Atlas needs a solid state Riaa to sound its best. Or at least, not too many tubes (Rauliregas). He may be right. I hope to be able to audition some s-state riaas in the near future, and will report back.

O-holter.....just reading the thread again.   I got rid of my SME V because it didn't have the ability to adjust for azimuth.  Sure you can shim the cartridge, but that is really unworkable.  When azimuth is set correctly, the soundstage widens, yet the instruments become smaller...life like and in their proper space in the sound envelope.  Depth is increased as is dynamic shadings.  These attributes are much too valuable to give away on an arm that can not accomadate for it.  These are the exact abilities that make the Lyra Atlas so special. I've head the Atlas on a few arms, and on mine - a VPI 3D.  All the top arms sound a bit different, but to my ears, none was better than on my VPI 3D.  I understand Harry is working on the addition of another pivot to make the arm even better....the mod is easily incorporated into all 3D arms, and has a modest price tag.