LYRA DELOS CARTRIDGE TOO BRIGHT, THIN AND SHRILL SOUNDING

I read the OP and a few initial responses, then jumped to the end.  So I may have missed some posts, and this may be redundant.  But, OP, I own a few Lyras, a Koetsu, MSL, and a VDH.  I know what you're talking about with the Lyra's resolution.  But, in my experience, it's all about the phono stage (assuming correct VTA/SRA, alignment, yada yada).  With my ARC REF 3SE, the Lyra Etna Lambda and Delos sound marvelous.  What you're hearing as shrill, I'm hearing as resolving, airy, spacious, and realistic, accompanied by a solid lower octave foundation, warmth when called for, midrange bloom when it's there, and what I consider an overall perfect tonal balance.  Not "bright."  When I pop in certain SS phono stages, it gets noticeably bitey, including that dreaded sense that the fairy dust isn't softly landing on you ear but rather stinging you.  Gotta go with what works in your system.  But I humbly submit that it's wrong to conclude there's something wrong with Lyra's sound.  Done right, paired right, its a frickin' amazing cart for the $$$.  If your red wine isn't going soo well with your ice cold sorbet, it's not the red wine.  

I had a Delos at one time on a VPI Aries and JMW 10 arm going into an all tube phono preamp, preamp and 2 monoblock tube power amps I had a similar experience to the OP. Despite having 40 years + with high end vinyl playback, and no matter how much tweeking I did to VTA,Azimuth,Loading,Tracking weight, I could never get it to sound anything but overly revealing and bright.

It worked well on well recorded audiophile vinyl but was mostly unlistenable with other music. I moved onto other cartridges like Koetsu, Benz, Hana.....all better to my ears. many people like the Lyra sound but that sound may have changed over the years.

I had a Lyra Clavis on my table at one time and loved it. It was borrowed from a friend. That's why I bought a Delos. What a letdown. Maybe it can sound better with a different table/arm? 

@rushfan 

Im running the metal uni pivot right now with a 3d reference gimbaled on the way. It was suggested that, the better damped arm will further improve all aspects of the Kleos.

The performance of my Kleos took an enormous leap forward when I moved from a uni-pivot arm to a Kuzma 4-Point. 

I too have found the Helikon to be a wonderful cartridge. Always heard it on a Lp12 with Aro tonearm. But never heard the same balance in a Delos.

I've been using unipivots that came stock on my VPIs for...7 years at least and while I'm not qualified to talk about what the advantages/disadvantages over a gimbaled or knife-edge or univpivot, my Lyras have worked splendidly to my ears.

Now, having said that I understand how people can be really dissatisfied with too bright. I hate it myself especially with my aging ears. But I found, at least in my case, the balance of the system is what is the crucial factor. My whole system, or at least half of it (the power amp and the speakers) err to the warm side. 

The one "warm" cart I owned (a Koetsu) I found to be far too muffly and wooly for me.

Anyway, seems to me that every component has to be considered to get all these things mostly right. I tend to think most every modern speaker these days (saving some British models and a few others) tend toward bright and forward and if the cart is bright, the amps are analytical, etc., you'll be far to an extreme and that could be the problem people are having.