Lyra delos

[Dean Fox]

Delos Loading

I have a Lehmann Decade, I tired 100 ohms and it sounded to soft for my liking. I switched to 1000 ohms and it sounds great. My decade does not have switch settings for 500 ohms but I plan on getting 500 ohm audio grade resistors and trying them....

 

[MPS]

Quality resistors are relatively cheap so while you are at it, why not get a series of precision resistors like 330 - 390 - 470 - 510 - 680 and try and see which way to go from any modified value, once you find the sweet spot then its time to try out different brands of resistors of same value..

 

[Dean Fox]

That is a great idea... thanks for the advice...

 

[magoo]

Just got a delos today, replacing a dorian in a spacedeck/origin live illustrious combination. Have to say it sounds, even after a few hrs, wonderful. On the other hand, it seems to sit pretty low, static theres a bit of a gap, which diminishes on playing a lp, theres still daylight between the cartridge & the disc, but its pretty minimal. From reading around this seems normal but coming from a dorian that seemed to sit a lot higher, its a bit alarming visually. Just wondering how other users have found this?

 

[Dean Fox]

I've had a Delos since Mar., I agree it does ride low, however, it has never been a problem in my system. The way the cartridge is designed you can see the cantilever bend as the weight of the cartridge comes to bear as it descends onto the disk. Looks weird, sounds great. I found that the cartridge takes a long time to fully break in, at least 100 hrs... enjoy...

 

[Victor]

I've had a Delos since Mar., I agree it does ride low, however, it has never been a problem in my system. The way the cartridge is designed you can see the cantilever bend as the weight of the cartridge comes to bear as it descends onto the disk. Looks weird, sounds great. I found that the cartridge takes a long time to fully break in, at least 100 hrs... enjoy...

Hi Dean, Magoo,
I've read about low riding tendencies with other Users. (Including one where the washi paper seemed to be actively polishing the vinyl!) A bit concerning if a lump of fluff gets stuck underneath
Assuming that the suspension has not collapsed and the VTF is within Spec , does your cantilever still exhibit the calculated "20 degree angle" under load?
I have a vested interest in asking because mine is on order now

Many thanks.........................Victor.

 

[Dean Fox]

Hi Victor,

The low point on the cartridge is a piece of plastic were the cantilever attaches to the cartridge. When playing records it still is 1/8-3/16 of inch above record. The paper covering is behind this piece of plastic and the body of the cartridge angles up, so I don't think it is possible for it to touch the record. Unless the cantilever breaks (never heard of this happening in any cartridge) it looks like it is impossible for any part of the cartridge to actually touch the record.
I have played many records some warped but to date no problem in this area.

I LOVE the Delos, best cartridge that I have ever owned. I hope you enjoy yours as well.... As far as maintaining the 20 degrees alignment I'm not sure. I can see the cantilever bend when the weight of the cartridge descends onto the record, I think that is why it is so important to get the cartridge properly set up to 2.75 grams tracking weight. When you do that everything properly aligns. dean

 

[magoo]

I'm sure thats a typo above, but the recomended range is 1.7 - 1.8g with 1.75 being apparently the optimum. I also found getting the arm level was crucial. But although mine still only has 35 hrs or so on the clock, it sounds absolutely fantastic, across the full range of my music (and thats a pretty broad church!). I don't have much experiance of really high end carts, but if I'd spent double I'd still have been impressed I think, which I reckon makes this something of a bargain. Hope you enjoy yours when it arrives.

 

[Dean Fox]

Magoo, Your correct.. that was a typo, the correct tracking weight is 1.75 grams. I have a Rega P9, Rega always seems to do things their own way. Their method to determine arm height is to take the standard height of the Rega cartridges then calculate the difference with the cartridge you want to mount. In the case of the Lyra Delos the difference amounted to me adding 1 Rega spacer/washer under the arm to get it to the correct height. It seems to work fine....

 

[Victor]

Hi Victor,

The low point on the cartridge is a piece of plastic were the cantilever attaches to the cartridge. When playing records it still is 1/8-3/16 of inch above record. The paper covering is behind this piece of plastic and the body of the cartridge angles up, so I don't think it is possible for it to touch the record. Unless the cantilever breaks (never heard of this happening in any cartridge) it looks like it is impossible for any part of the cartridge to actually touch the record.
I have played many records some warped but to date no problem in this area.

Hi Dean, Magoo,
Many thanks once again for the detailed feedback. Yes when I saw the word "bend" then "2.75" I did wonder for a second but no problem I knew it was a typo
My current cart (MMIII) appears to be a natural low rider (almost touching the disc surface despite a perfect horizontal alignment), so the gap you describe with the Delos sounds more than acceptable.
Dean....I'm pleased too that it's playing your warped records without issue. I've been getting interesting effects from what is known as "pinch warps", causing induced cantilever resonance so anything that avoids this is good news ! (My guess is that an arm/cart resonance of 11Hz is ideal but anything less than 10 might be susceptible on some discs?)
Best regards...........................Victor.

 

[Victor]

Pleased to say that the Delos arrived not long after the last post. The Graham Phantom took a bit longer so I'm finally getting a chance to run in both !
At one point I dug out what I now refer to as the "nightmare disc from Hell" and the Lyra tracked it as if by lasers. Absolutely rock solid. I was in a situation where the MMIII had effectively declared 20% of my record collection off-limits. No such difficulties now. :music:
A great shame because the MMIII sounds amazing on the other 80%.

Getting the azimuth dialled in on the Phantom has been a learning experience but the Delos is already sounding sublime at this stage. (About 8-9hrs on the clock)
I'm scared to tweak it any further now as I'm too busy enjoying it

Victor

 

[RichTeer]

Congrats! Speaking as a long-time Lyra owner, I'm not surprised you like the Delos!

 

[Bernard]

Getting the azimuth dialled in on the Phantom has been a learning experience but the Delos is already sounding sublime at this stage. (About 8-9hrs on the clock)
I'm scared to tweak it any further now as I'm too busy enjoying it

Victor

How did you dial in the azimuth? I bought a Fozgometer in order to get the azimuth dead on, but when I plugged it in I found that the azimuth was already dead on.

 

[Victor]

How did you dial in the azimuth? I bought a Fozgometer in order to get the azimuth dead on, but when I plugged it in I found that the azimuth was already dead on.

Hi Bernard,
Truth is I was encouraged by your considerable success in aligning it the traditional way.
Also I admit that I was spooked by reports that cartridges have "naturally unbalanced crosstalk" so elected to do it by eye + ear. (I even bought a USB microscope the other day but have yet to unpack it... )
My problem was resolving where the most natural setting for antiskate should be in the sense that I would expect it to impact on the "attitude" of the stylus from one passage to the next i.e loud passage to quiet passage?
So once I've settled on a position for azimuth I revisit "Band 2" (14db) to see what's changed.
Cheers.......................Victor.

 

[Victor]

..additionally...I've noted that a lot of Lyra enthusiasts have observed the need for what they would describe as excessive antiskate i.e. a few tenths more than VTF settings, and this is indeed what I'm finding with the Delos.

I started off with the bias weight about halfway down (according to Bob G this would be roughly = 1.5g) and found this setting to be hopeless (when I cued up the first test track by dropping it onto the clear section of vinyl it actually jumped over band 1 and landed on 2!!!).
Time for an adjustment I thought and cranked it up to nearer the 3/4 mark (3/4 X 3g) before moving on to azimuth tuning.

 

[Victor]

I'm buzzing.....gotta share

Today I dug out a tortuous classic to test the Delos : Rachmaninov/Glinka Songs performed by Galina Vishnevskaya/Mstislav Rostropovich.(Mr & Mrs)

To put the tracking outcome in context, my previous arm/cart combination of Ittok LVII/MMIII managed Bands 1-3 on the HFN/RR easily and almost competed Band4 but for the slight sound of a "bottled hornet" between the speakers.
Despite being painstakingly set up, the MMIII struggled with the above recording on peaks to the extent that I thought the LP was permanently damaged and unplayable!!
The Delos by contrast fails to completely pass Band2 on the HFN/RR but sailed through the entire programme without mistracking a single peak. It feels like I've just acquired a brand new LP !!
It explodes the myth that cartridges must be successful with test tracks.

Jonathan Carr will be heartened by reports like this.... :music:
Happy listening.

 

[Victor]

Still working my way through the record collection (over 100 hrs clocked now) and today found myself trying another disc that previously had problems. Like the classical disc (above), my copy of "The Return of the Durutti Column" when played by previous arm/cart combinations had been sounding like it was completely sh*gged.
On the current setup it now sounds like I'm getting a completely rejuvenated disc, "new for old", apart from the odd glitch/scratch in known locations it produced a flawless performance.

A copy of Led Zep III in the same session suffered from continuous fast ripples, in a way that gives bass cones a seriously good workout. The Lyra handled it with aplomb, but I was starting to become concerned about the amount of virtual DC being channelled into the voice coil of the bass driver.

I continue to be impressed with this cartridge.