Delos Loading

I too am in the same process, just waiting for a new table to arrive to install it. Given that 100 Ohms has worked optimally for my Argo i and Helikon carts, I plan to use the same 100 Ohm setting. 120 Ohms should work. The fiddles can stay on the vinyl where they belong until played.

All Lyras best in 100Ohm range. 100 or 120 shouldn't make difference.

I load my Delos at 100ohms and it sounds wonderful. 120ohms should be fine.

Thank you all for your responces,looking forward
to hearing the Delos in my system.
A friend who has many cartridges including the Ortofon A 90
really loves the way the Delos makes music,compared to quite a few very expensive transducers,

I use a Delos on my Rega P9. I started with a 100 ohms loading (C2300 preamp - allows me to adjust loading with remote from seating/listening position)and settled on 200 ohms. The US distributor for Lyras suggested 500 ohms loading.

Agreed Miner42....this sounds pretty consistent with what Dealers recommend. My local Dealer asserted they would "never use a Lyra with less than 470 ohms", but it really depends on the sum of the capacitance of your phono stage, ext phono cable and internal (tonearm) phono cable. For many setups 100 ohms will be a safe setting.

(FWIW I'm using 220 ohms)

Phonostage A with 100Ω hasn't the same sonic result like Phonostage B
with 100Ω. It is a endless discussion, best you can do, try your setting
and what you like best, that's it. When you buy a new Phonocable, you can roll
the dice again.
The better your Phonostage is, the higher you can go (1kΩ-47kΩ),
less loading, less coloration (when you step down from 1k to 300, 200, 100 ...-
-> the higher frequencies are more and more dampened, sound gets slow and
dull but a lot of Preamps deliver a listenable result that way :-)
The majority of Phonostages are not listenable above 1kΩ, but this isn't a
technical fact, it is the limited knowledge of Designers to get a proper solution.
That's the reason for the recommendation: 100Ω - 47kΩ
(That means: it doesn't matter what you have, thank you for buying our
cartridge)

I have heard that HP from the Absolute Sound will only listen to cartridges at the 47k ohm setting. I guess with the equipment he uses, he can get away with that. But isnt that what you get if you use a step up transformer into a regular MM phono input?

If you are using a SUT into a 47k load you are pretty much screwed if you think that the higher the load the better. . let's say that your SUT has 10x turns ratio. Loading is given by

Resistive-load / square-of-turns-ratio

In this example: 47000 / 100 = 470

I agree with Syntax that loading dampens. But I don't agree that there is much difference between 470 and 47000. There is a miniscule voltage drop at 470. Now, at 10 ohms there is huge damping and a loss of about half the output (can't recall the calculations but I think this is in the ballpark) and there is no question that you can hear this and that it can make a harsh system sound tolerable. It can also tame a rising high end in the cartridge and / or ringing.

Why manufacturers state > 100 is because there isn't much difference. Below 100 you begin to notice the effects of damping.

I use a SUT (16x) into 47k (tube phono pre) for an effective impedance of 180 ohms. That is the "best" I can do with my SUT. I compared it to my SS at 47k and heard no degradation in the high end and transient attack.

Just my considered opinion...