Lyra Delos A truth teller or what?

tzh, I would have thought that the Cardas cables would somewhat mitigate any tendency for the Lyra(s) to sound "clinical".  Cardas ICs and speaker cables tend to the Benz view of things, in my own experience on my system.  For me also, however, the Cardas wires tended to enforce a certain blandness or sameness.  (Obviously, this is a completely subjective opinion. Anyone else is free to have a different one.)  

Lewm, That is exactly correct.  My take is the Lyra just is not very rolled off.  It is very extended and it seems as though older recordings were so well recorded that they are so revealing through the Lyra and the Benz tends to veil in comparison.  On more recent hotter reissues, the benz sounds better at the expense of mistracking sometimes in comparison to the Lyra which really just tracks just about anything with ease.  I just hope it melows a little bit more as it is still a bit edgy but also only has about fifty hours or so on it.

Delos is tipped up in HF, no two ways about it. Benz is tipped down. The relatively less voiced carts are typically Ortofon, Shelter and EMT to name a few. A shelter 901 mk2, EMT TSD-15 Sfl or Ortofon Cadenza Blue are all very good carts without much voicing. 

I'm not a big fan of the Delos (despite being a fan of JCarr, and higher up Lyra's when in the right systems) and tend to agree with some of the comments vis a vis it's tonal tilt, but will ask if you're pretty certain it's dialed in, optimally loaded? How do you find the bass / lower mid-range weight? Just curious...

It really depends. Lyra cartridges certainly are truth tellers.

Great recordings will sound great, bad invariably will sound bad unless the rest of your system is appropriately voiced and full range.

If your system is slightly lean or you use small two way speakers that don’t really go low in the bass frequencies, Lyra will not be for you.

If you have a neutral or slightly warm system and want more detail, Lyra will probably be a revelation.

J Carr has voiced the Delos to have a slightly bright top end to match more warm systems that need some detail.

I own the Delos, Etna SL and Atlas SL and have owned the Kleos and Atlas over the last 7 years so they have many hours on them. All Lyra carts are good for at least 2500-3000 hours if looked after.

Personally I could not think of a worse sounding cartridge than a rolled off Benz - but some like that sound.

choice your poison and enjoy.