Is this stylus worn out?

I am a long time Lyra Delos user (and before that Lyra Argoi). These are superb sounding cartridges if set up properly. There are a few points to consider here:

(1) the photos that you have shared are both labeled "Delos" so its not obvious what we are looking at ! .....I am surprised no-one else has noticed this.

(2) both photos show considerable cleaning needed. Lyra has a special Stylus cleaner (SPT). the easiest way to safely use is to place a drop on the red stiff stylus brush that comes with Delos and gently brush back to front. You could also use the brush that comes with SPT but be carful you don't get too much liquid on the cantilever. 

(3) As you probably know all Lyra cartridges are extremely sensitive to setup. It is worthwhile to recheck all parameters (VTA,VTF in particular) once a year as these may go out by just the use of the cartridge.

(4) last but not least make sure your records are clean. Nothing damages sensitive stylus as much as dirty records. 

If all fails contact Lyra (or the distributor) to evaluate the stylus. It may mean that you will be without Delos for some time but you have other excellent cartridges to keep you listening!

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

@mijostyn 

​​​​​​10% alcohol duly noted. Thanks for the correction! 

Hello,

Wally mentions groove wear. Does this happen on all records or just one or two. I bought the Hudson ultrasonic stylus cleaner with just distilled water. Works great. I only do this once a month. The rest is done with a dry stylus brush before each play. I thought about this a while back that maybe we should all take a pick of our stylus when we get it so we can compare later. If you are going to have it retipped or buy a new cart it might be a good idea. I use an Ortofon Quintet Black. I can see pics on the web. They do not recommend using solvents so I only use distilled water. I hope this helped. 

I have had the Delos for exactly one year and play it 2 hours a day

I guarantee you that if you haven’t cleaned it with Lyra SPT on the red stylus brush mentioned above you have build up on the back side of your stylus  

The SPT cleaning solution has no solvent in its ingredients and is water based so 

Little chance you will damage the bonding compound holding your diamond to the cantilever. I do a wet clean once a week

Also I recently quit using the Onzo stylus cleaner as well  

wet cleaned the cantilever and stylus and the Delos has never sounded better

please let us know your progress  

Good luck Willy-T

Another one for cleaning your stylus.  It only takes a couple of minutes and cleaning it should be part of your maintenance schedule. How often depends on usage, time and environment.

All the best.

JD