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Is a Lyra Kleos good with a current-mode phono preamp?

Does anyone know whether the Kleos, or Lyra's in general, work well with current-mode phono preamps?  

MF "highly recommends the $2500 Channel D Lino C2.0 phono preamplifier", but only if, "your cartridge has a super-low internal impedance."     I have a Lyra Kleos, which has an "internal Impedance: 5.4 ohms." Is that in the ballpark of, "super-low internal impedance?" What is?    

I might be tempted to try one, given the glowing reviews, which you rarely see at this price point. On the other hand, I have not had good luck paying attention to MF's reviews, educational though they sometimes are. His taste and mine do not often seem to coincide, but then, I like tubes, and don't have $100K amps or turntables or $50K preamps. Never will!  
Are there less expensive cartridges with low output impedance?   The Kleos is terrific, and dealing with Lyra was a delight, but it isn't likely I'll ever be spending over $3.7K on a cartridge again.   In a review of the Little Loco by Sutherland, also touted as a great bargain (although $4K is far from trivial, to me) I recall that one of those guys was surprised that it didn't work very well with a Lyra Delos, which has an input impedance of 8.2 ohms.  Is that not considered, "low output impedance", or was something else going on?  

What is the downside (unavoidable, given the art of trade-offs, a/k/a/ engineering) of current-mode preamps, compared to "normal" voltage amp phono preamps?  

for reference, I'm currently (hah!) using an AR PH3 SE ungraded by Great Northern with teflon caps.  Hard to improve on at a reasonable cost. 
128x128lloydc
hdm
1,055 posts
 
I've used cartridges with internal impedances ranging from 4-14 ohms with no problems with my Aqvox, and think that all worked well. 

I've also used an AT MONO3/LP with an internal impedance of 40 ohms and thought it worked reasonably well with my stage, although it was not a great match in terms of output/gain, having a bit too much output for the Aqvox to really dial it in; the review of the Loco I saw on line stated it would not work at all with that phono stage delivering only a loud hum, so there may be some other slightly odd compatibility issues with certain cartridges and the Loco because of other elements of its design. The Aqvox is fully balanced in and out so perhaps that is why I was still able to get that AT to work with it. 

The Lyras are in the middle to upper range of output (as far as low output MC's are concerned)  with .5 mV and .6 mV respectively with Kleos and Delos and the issue with the Delos may have had more to do with proper gain matching/setup than the internal impedance of the Lyra at 8.2 ohms which is still relatively low. 

Most current mode stages should perform reasonably well with cartridges with internal impedances of 1-10 ohms I would think.  
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rauliruegas
12,781 posts
 
Dear @lloydc : You don't have any problem with your Kleos, go a head but if you still have a doubt then ask directly to Lyra and not Agon.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
jperry
2,430 posts
 
Raul,

The information I posted from Channel D has a clickable link so you you can contact Channel D, as they suggest, and ask about the compatibility of a cartridge with their phono preamp.

Best Regards,

Jim Perry
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,175 posts
 
The Lino is a great preamp. Team it up with Pure Vinyl and something like an Apple Mini and you have an unbelievable record playing system. You can record records to your hard drive. You type in the record's PL # and all the data will pull down automatically. If you want to compare cartridges and you can record a sample of each then AB them. The RIAA correction is done in the digital domain with accuracy and a lack of various distortions not possible in the analog domain. Everything is done in very high resolution. You can also use the Pure Music part of the program to download digital files to your hard drive and the program includes a stream through option. Your Apple becomes a music server, actually a media server as you can also stream movies. The program automatically up samples everything to 24/192 pushing the anti aliasing
filter up away from the audio spectrum. Check out Channel d's web site    http://www.channld.com/
saburo
57 posts
 
The Lino C 2.0 mates perfectly with carts that have a DCR  <10 ohms. I use my Lino with a My Sonic Lab cart that has a DCR of 1 ohm and its superb.
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