Brand new Lyra Delos - skewed cantilever


Hi everybody, first of all thanks for the very insightful tips I've been able to gather over years of thread reading.

Today I am finally starting my own thread to ask a question about a brand new Lyra Delos I received this week. This is my first ever cart over 1K and I was expecting something amazing.

Well, the sound is indeed amazing! Even though after 2h30 of cart usage I am still struggling to find some meat to the bones. Sound is VERY precise but I expect it to become even better as hours go by.

However, as soon as I started aligning the cart I found the cantilever went slightly to the left. I have asked my dealer about this and he said it was nothing to worry about but I was hoping to get somebody's opinion on the forum, maybe even Jonathan Carr's. I have included photos.

Thanks a lot for your help everyone!

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anthos314

OK now I don’t know what to do. Another record, another skip.

Now I’m afraid of listening to another record for fear of damaging it.

Is there any product I could use to completely clean this stylus?

I’m wondering if it is a problem with the stylus, my records or my setup. Arm is parallel to the record, antiskate is 1.75, VTF is also 1.75 and I have tried to set the tonearm and cart very precisely.

Maybe I should send the cart back to Japan for an inspection of the stylus? I am really confused.

All my records used to be fine before I had all those skips. Now I've got to replace 2 of them! 

@anthos314 , couple of things to consider, I am a Delos user for several years.

  • The LP may be damaged and the Delos is simply picking that up since it may be digging deeper than the previous cart was able to.
  • Make hyper sure that azimuth is as perfect as can be, the Delos will perform at a very high level once you achieve this, as well tracking will be positively affected. I use a FozMeter to do this, NEVER my ears as the adjustments are so minute you need to do it electrically.
  • Regarding loading, do what JCarr states and that is make sure you are using the lowest cap cable you can get so you can load higher at the phono stage. I went from night and day performance originally using a very high cap cable (550pf) and loading at 121ohms on my Musical Surroundings Nova II. The sound was fine, I honestly thought is was really good!. Then I read an amazing thread on WBA forum that JCarr contributed to and I purchased a phono cable with 70pf/mt and set loading at 475 ohms (per the Delos instructions) and holy smokes!!! The seas parted, my jaw dropped....more resolution than I could imagine and the dynamics were insane, still are. The low end shakes my bones.....
  • To extract the most from what the Delos can do requires patience and virtually perfect setup. The New Angle design means the top of the cart must be 100% parallel with the surface for magnet/coil alignment. If you do what Lyra suggests you will be rewarded with amazing reproduction.

Enjoy!

On what part of the record does the stylus skip? If it skips towards the lead out groove, then I would try a slightly higher anti skate ( this was happening on my Kleos on a few pressings, the fix was to increase very slightly the anti-skate). Remember, the Lyra’s do not track at a high VTF, as such they are probably a tad prone to anti skate issues.

BTW, just because the stylus skipped on the record does not mean it has damaged the groove, it is possible, but not always. You should listen again once the anti-skate is dialed in correctly.