Lyra Lydian B experience required


My rig is an Oracle Delphi Mk. V/SME 309/Goldring Eroica H into an E.A.R. 834P. With the help of postings on Audiogon, and after reading all available reviews, I'm nearly ready to commit to a Lyra Lydian Beta. I do have two reservations, though, which are as follows: this cartridge will be too unforgiving of poorly recorded albums, and a sound that will become too dry/sterile if I were to replace the SME 309 with a Graham 2.2 next year. Can anybody put my fears to rest? (Gmorris, if you read this, would you please let me know if any of your albums have suffered -- although you do have a Helikon if I remember correctly.)
sgh
I have not used the EAR phono preamp. However, according to reports, it has a warm sonic balance. The Lydian/ARC PH2 sounded rich in my system with the Oracle MK V SE and either the ZETA or Graham 2.0 arms. The Graham 2.2 has a warmer tonal balance than the 2.0. I would not expect any problem with either arm. You can adjust the tonal balance by simply raising or lowering the VTA on your arm.
Incidentally, most of my LPs are non-audiophile recordings from the 50's, 60's and 70's, and apart from the surface noice in some cases, I was able to enjoy the music. In fact, when the Lydian was properly adjusted, the surface noise was uncorrelated with the music (i.e. the clicks and pops were localized on the speaker surface apart from the soundstage.)

In summary, the Lydian was an excellent performer and provided a glimpse of the performance of the top cartridges. However, the Beta surpasses the basic Lydian in the folling areas: It is more dynamic, more robust in the midrange with more extended and powerful bass.

Go for it.

Experiment with 100-1000 ohm "loading" for the Beta.With the Lydian, I was able to obtain a warmer balance (richer midrange) without losing high frequency extension with 100 ohm "loading" on my PH2. I am using the same "loading" with the Helikon.
Thanks for the advice. The EAR's MC section is loaded to between 10 and 100 ohms and the step-up transformer is -- as I understand it to be -- an 'autoformer' which is actually quite accommodating of cartridge impedances. If you're suggesting the cartridge works well around 100 ohms, then I don't suppose I should expect any misbehavin'!
Cheers, Shawn