Lyra Delos and Soundsmith

The Delos dampers were formulated and shaped with boron in mind. If (and that is a huge if) I would have used an aluminum oxide (ruby/sapphire) cantilever for the Delos, I definitely would have altered the damper formulations, and possibly their shape, too. If you want to replace the Delos' boron cantilever with one made of ruby, I would suggest changing the dampers to match.

In general, however, I consider ruby to be a downgrade from boron (which is why I don't use it for any of my designs). It is a fact that ruby is 70% more massive than boron, and its propagation velocity is only about 70% that of boron. And to my ears it has a more noticeable sonic fingerprint than boron.

Objectively, diamond, boron and beryllium are all better cantilever materials than ruby/sapphire.

However, I would be the first to admit that objective criteria and subjective preferences are not necessarily equivalent. Everyone's audio system is different, and everyone's ears are different, too. Ultimately, if _you_ are happy with what you hear, that's what matters.

HTH

Mofimadness: 90% of the year I am deep in design and development, so I don't check email so frequently. Nonetheless, I don't see any of your emails (or cannot find them). No idea why. Overactive spam filters on my side? Something else?

The following is all checklist stuff that I am sure that you are aware of, but just to repeat it yet again, note that most tonearms change VTF depending on the vertical relationship between the stylus and the tonearm pivot. So be sure that the meter's weighing surface is placed at the exact height of the LP.

Also, some tonearms allow the tracking force to change over time, due to slipping counterweights or whatever reason. It is a good idea to periodically check the tracking force, at the LP height.

Also, be sure that your tonearm is very gentle when it lowers the cartridge onto the LP. If a tonearm with an undamped elevator mechanism "drops" the cartridge onto your LPs, each time that this occurs, it can stretch the suspension wire and compress the dampers beyond what they were designed for. This can quickly lead to low-riders, and can also reduce the lifespan of the cartridge.

Nonetheless, if your Delos suspension has collapsed and it is still relatively new, we will handle it as a warranty issue. We have publically said this before, and it is our normal policy.

As always with warranty issues, we ask that you send the cartridge back to us through the dealer that you purchased it from. Since we are totally and seemingly permanently overworked, it will take us some time to get to it, see what is wrong with it and get it fixed, but we will do it.

Bifwynne: Stylus wear is always affected by the cleanliness of the LPs being played, but if you clean your LPs with a suction cleaner or ultrasonic machine, the microridge stylus of the Delos should easily last 2500 hours. Stylus wear is also affected by how clean you keep the stylus, and clean LPs combined with an always-clean stylus should get you up to around 3000.

Total cartridge life is also affected by other factors such as how well-damped the tonearm elevator mechanism is,

Some users can get more than 3000 hours, but they tend to use tonearms with gentle elevators, very few contaminents in the air, and no sunlight or ultraviolet hitting the audio system, which is not so common, I think.

FWIW, the microridge stylus used in the Delos has been designed specifically so that changes in shape as it wears are minimal. The playing surfaces have a side radius of 2.5 micrometers, and are located on a protruding ridge which has parallel surfaces only 5 micrometers apart. This narrow, confined structure imposes a limit on how large the radius can increase to, as the stylus wears.

In marked contrast, nearly every other stylus shape has a larger side radius to begin with, and the playing surfaces are located on a triangular structure (as seen from directly above or below). You can see one such example at the following link, in a post by DaleH, showing photos of a Fritz Gyger S stylus.

http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=22894&start=252

The angles of the triangular structure are fairly large, and this allows the playing radius to increase steadily as the stylus wears. What this also means is that resolution dwindles steadily over the stylus lifespan. The OCL falls into the same basic category, AFAIK.

As a separate observation, we frequently get back cartridges that have enough dirt built-up around the coil area to impair optimal movement, yet otherwise the stylus and suspension are fine. With these cartridge we usually clean them up and return them at no charge, (unless there is a need to change components).

Our general experience has been that most low-riders can be cured by readjusting the suspension, and again, if this can be accomplished without any component replacements, we usually do this for free (or at a very minimal fee), even if the cartridge is outside of its warranty period.

When the stylus and/or suspension is actually worn out (which is usually 3 years of use when the cartridge is played a few hours each and every day), we do replace the cartridge with a completely new one. This is because the suspension wire and dampers will degrade with time and should be replaced to bring them back to as-new condition, also because replacing the cartridge allows us to build in any improvements that we have made to the cartridge design. This could be a different coil material, different suspension, different output pins, even a different stylus (these are all actual instances of internal components that we have improved as running changes in cartridge production).

FWIW, I corresponded with a fellow who was using one of our previous-generation cartridges, which was retipped by Soundsmith. As I recall, it was a Helikon or Argo, bought with a broken cantilever. Since he liked the sonic results, he then got a Delos. The Delos was purchased new, and he is using it unmodified. His subsequent correspondance suggests that he is clearly happier with the stock Delos than he was with the Soundsmith-retipped Helikon / Argo.

hth, jonathan carr

Hi Bifwynne: I've been working on the documentation for a new tonearm cable that we'll be introducing shortly. It's a twin-axial shielded cable with very low capacitance (32pF for 1.2m, including connectors). The low capacitance is so that a wider range of loading resistances than normally practical can be used. Higher load resistances will allow the cartridge's dynamics and resolution to bloom more, which means better sound overall.

At any rate, thanks for moving up to the Kleos. It's a smoother-sounding cartridge than the Delos, and the top-end is better-controlled. The treble region will sound less splashy, less dry, and more "moist".

You will also hear this as a lower noise-floor, especially on LPs that have some level of pops, clicks and surface noise. LPs will tend to sound cleaner, and in better condition with the Kleos.

These improvements are due in great part to the stronger body materials, more complex body construction of the Kleos, and reduced heatshell contact area.

One other possible difference is that the output pins are now platinum-plated, while for the earlier versions of the Delos we used silver. By resisting tarnishing better, the platinum electrical contacts should require less maintenance than the silver.

The distance from mounting screws to the stylus is the same for the Delos and Kleos (give or take 0.15mm), likewise for the height. However, the Kleos weighs more, so you will need to readjust the counterweight.

The Kleos tracks a little lighter than the Delos, but both models are extremely sensitive to tracking force, so a digital scale with 0.01 g accuracy or better is recommended.

The Kleos puts out a little less output than the Delos, so you may need to turn up the volume a bit more, and depending on your phono stage, the Kleos may sound a smidge less dynamic. But this is a phono stage issue, not a cartridge issue.

BTW, I suggest that you periodically flux-bust the cartridges (whether it is the Delos, Kleos, or any other of our cartridges). Remove the RCA jacks from your phono stage (probably a good idea to turn it off first), put a dead short from plus to ground of each channel, separately, and then play a fairly dynamic LP passage for a few minutes (with the cartridge's output shorted into itself). Put everything back as it was, and the sound should now be more open, less hazy, and cleaner (like the distortion level dropped lower).

hth and kind regards, jonathan carr