New Delos cart

Delos is not lean, I agree. It is very revealing of the recordings I also agree. It is very musical, correct. If I had the luxury of multiple arms, most probably one of them would have had a Lyra on it.

Even though I have heard many high end cartridges in various systems, my reference for tonality is a Denon 103/103R. Listen to a Delos besides a 103, maybe you can relate to my concerns regarding its treble. 103 lacks in every other area compared to the Delos but tonally-timbrally it tells you exactly what the instruments and voices in a recording sounds like. That is why it conveys emotions so well in spite of so many limitations (especially dynamic limitations).

I gave the example of analogue productions because when the recording/mastering/pressing is very good everything sounds good and it many a times becomes difficult to tell the flaws. It is just very enjoyble due to the excellent resolution present in the LP. Listen to a average LP which you listen mostly because of its music and not because of the quality of the recording, possibly you may hear the issues I am trying to project.

As far as musical attributes are concerned with respected to cartridges, I place timbral accuracy the highest. Listening to Mozart's woodwind divertimenti I don't want to have to guess what instruments are playing. The clarinet, oboe, flute and cor anglais can sound rather indistinct with respect to one another. I don't have that problem with the Delos. Same goes for hearing the voices in string quartet music. I know of no more difficult tests for judging timbre reproduction, and the Delos passes easily.

Last night I was listening to Debussey played on the restored Siena pianoforte. The nuances of timbre on that instrument are fascinating to listen in to.

So I can't see how the Delos is defecient in the area of timbre. It strikes me as natural and accurate, at least in combination with the rest of my system. Now it is also true that I had to do some tube rolling in the phono pre to get that to happen so it could be that I compensated for the Delos. But judging from the sound through my ss phono pre, I don't think so.

Pani,

Just curious. What setup ( phono/arm/table/ampspeakers) did you use or listen to the Delos with?

Jaspert, I heard the Delos on a Rega P9 with RB1000 tonearm, 47 Labs phonostage, Naim 52 preamp with Naim 135 power amp driving a pair of ATC SCM20. I also had the Delos at home for a few days but at that time my spare TT (Technics SL1200) was playing, I tried the Delos on it also, though I was sceptical if it makes sense to judge the delos on a 1200. The Rega P9 experience was much better but that little HF issue never faded away.

I could hear that issue mostly on the high notes of a acoustic guitar. Those notes had a thin body and leads to a feeling of edgy shimmering HF. You could also try listening to track "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits to hear that effect to some extent.

After using a Dynavector 17D3 for 3 years on my VPI Classic 1, I upgraded to a Lyra Delos 2 months ago and I haven't looked back, I'm completely ecstatic and in awe of this cartridge. To my ears it has the same kind of neutrality across the frequency spectrum as the 17D3, but takes a huge leap ahead in terms of detail resolution, 3-dimensionality, presence, the breath of life, and that "you are there"-ness we love so much in our best sounding vinyl. I'm not kidding, the difference is huge, the 17D3 sounds dull and lifeless by comparison. It also rejects surface noise to a much larger degree than the 17D3. I recently pulled out an LP that I had an unpleasant time sitting through the last time I played it (with the 17D3) because of the poor, noisy pressing. I really thought this LP was a lost cause, but I decided to give it a shot with the Delos, and the Lyra cartridge literally rescued this record. Not only did the record become tolerable to sit through, but enjoyable as well, the music was not fighting to punch out above the bad pressing noise like it was with the 17D3. The surface noise was dramatically reduced, and the music just burst forth, illuminated. I suspect it has something to do with the Delos' long cantilever. The 17D3 has that stubby little cantilever, and I think the effect it has is to give you the surface noise at the same level of emphasis as the music.

My phono preamp is a Simaudio Moon 310LP, with the Delos loaded at 100 ohm with 54 db of gain, and it's a terrific combination. With the 17D3 I was using a pair of Telefunken 12au7 smooth plate tubes in my VTL 2.5 preamp, but I switched to a pair of Mullard CV4003 because I found they balance out the increased liveliness of the Delos better than the Telefunkens did.