R f sayles, I'm not the financial guy, but I'm pretty sure that Lyra does offer discounted upgrade pricing (IOW, trade in value on an existing Lyra credited towards a more expensive Lyra purchase). We don't offer trade-ins on other brands, because with very few exceptions, they are neither useful nor interesting for us (the local distributor may have different trade-in programs, so you'd need to check to be sure).
The Titan i should easily be as quiet as the Akiva, but as you said, differences in turntables, tonearms and phono stages could conceal the differences.
Also cartridge loading depends on the impedance of the cartridge and the frequency range of the electrical resonances that the loading addresses, and also on the phono stage and its IMD behaviour (because said electrical resonances may lie totally in the ultrasonic range, particular in the case of low-impedance cartridges).
regards, jonathan carr
The Titan i should easily be as quiet as the Akiva, but as you said, differences in turntables, tonearms and phono stages could conceal the differences.
Also cartridge loading depends on the impedance of the cartridge and the frequency range of the electrical resonances that the loading addresses, and also on the phono stage and its IMD behaviour (because said electrical resonances may lie totally in the ultrasonic range, particular in the case of low-impedance cartridges).
regards, jonathan carr