Every Audiophile will have his own kind of rating, what fits for one, doesn't
for the next. I go for performance, to get the most information out of the
groove, others look for a "sound" which fits probably best for their
taste or the System in general. The Kleos is imo not the Highlight in
Performance, instead it is silent in the grooves and a good match for very
analytical sounding Systems. Nice to listen to but hardly the right one when you
want to know what the magic is about with Mercury Living Stereos. It has a
healthy output which is a good match for Phonostages with limited gain or
channel separation. Definitely more silent with noisy reissues than other Lyra
cartridges. I think, it is based on the diamond they use for it.
The Skala is better in overall Performance, based on its Body it is also not so
critical to Tonearms (energy transfer). Today we live in an era, where every new
products gets raves (... best sounding unit ever made, better than 3x so
expensive ones which were the Standard .... endless work inside... and so on). I
know owners which are very happy with it (until the next change is ready to go,
only then you can read what 'problems' the former one had ...). Overall I think,
the Skala is a very good cartridge which works very good in a wide range of Set
Ups.
