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Lyra Kleos arrives after eight months. . Worth the wait? First impressions

About nine months ago I posted some threads on Audiogon to get advice concerning upgrading the Ortofon Black 2M, moving magnet cartridge on my VPI Classic 2 turntable. You all ended up convincied me to not only to upgrade my cartridge, but to upgrade a VPI JMW unipivot tonearm to a VPI gimballed Fatboy tonearm. And after carefully considering all your recommendations, plus doing a lot of research, a Lyra Kleos moving coil cartridge was chosen and ordered.

The VPI Fatboy, ordered about March 1, arrived right away. However the new Lyra cartrdge took a full eight months to arrive from that same date. Apparently there is only one person in Japan with a single assistant making every Lyra cartridge. Picture this poor soul working day and night, chained to the floor in a small basement room with only his assistant Igor to help.

The Lyra Kleos cartridge is now happily and professionally installed on the Fatboy. It has maybe ten or so hours on it at this point. Most noticeable so so far is a better defined bass response. Elements of the sound stage also seem to be more clealy defined. Paticularly on better recorded albums, you can hear everything more clearly, as well as hear things that were simply lost in the mix before. For instance on a Sade record I distinctly heard a background singer singling softly along with her which had never been apparent before. Every sound seems better realized in more detail and depth especially on better recorded albums. On more poorly recorded content, not so much.

All in all I’m happy with the results so far. It took about three hours of break in before the cartridge began to open up. My first clue on how well this cart could perform was listening to a Jaco Pastorius bass run on a nicely recorded Joni Mitchell album. That was exciting. Some older Mies Davis and Charles Mingus sounded great too. On some other material like Mike Bloomfields Live at the Fillmore West the sound wan’t much improved over the Ortofon 2M cart. My ECM records all sounded more well defined so far.

What has been your experience with a Lyra cartridge if you have one? Have you been pleased with yours. At about how many hours did yours peak out. I’ve read their performance peaks at anywhere from 20 to 100 hourswhich is quite a range. What’s your experience? If you knew yours would take eight months to arrive would you have gone another route?

Mike

 

skyscraper
skyscraper OP
825 posts
 

Bigkidz, I wouldn’t mind upgrading the current phono-stage iin my Luxman L-507uX Mk2 integrated amp, but will likely have to wait until hitting the lottery. the Kleos plus VPI Fatboy purchase has tapped me out on equipment purcases. Its’ phono stage is set at 100 ohms for MC cartridges with no adjustments possibe. It would be interesting to be able to adjust it to the 475 ohms you prefer. Maybe someday.

Baylinor, you seem spot on identifying the types music the Kleos does best with. I’ve yet to try it on any Classical yet, so willl give it a shot straight away. It did well with some later Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro, both Miles Davi’s "Big Fun" and "Steamin’" albums, as well as an old Deutsche Gramophine pressing of Debussy’s "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" playing now. Some old Sam Cooke and King Crimson’s "Starless and Bible Black" weren’t anything exceptional, but some later Roxy Music material was. An old Charlie Musselwhite Chicago blues recording on Vanguard sounded great. I’ve been sampling a little of everythng as you might surmise.

Czarivey, I guess so, The Lyra Kleos seems to be opening up more over time, but not as dramatically as after the first several hours. That’s kind of how it went with my Magico A3 speakers too. We'll see how this proceeds as the fifty hour mark Raul mentioned is apprached.

Mike

 

 

daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,835 posts
 

Congrats on the new cartridge, it's a keeper.

One thing about the Kleos and the new angle Lyra's in general, they require a very precise set-up and benefit from exact loading, depending on the phono stage and the phono cable. In my system, 750 ohms works best, but that may not apply to all applications. My Kleos really opened up after about 90+ hours, and now it sings. I have heard this cartridge in arms that don't really work for it, generally because they are too heavy, and are unable to be set up precisely to include SRA, VTF and Azimuth. So the key to getting the most out of these Lyra's, IME- is one word..synergy. 

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,836 posts
 

lyra are imo worth the wait. My Delos will go back to Japan soon. 50-100 hours seems about right. Your and others observations about suitability for a type of music is an audiophile curse for neutral components….  We all suffer this to some degree. Your Black was pretty neutral  expecting a Lyra to be much different in that dimension is unfounded. Best to you and enjoy the music ;-)

Jim

mwinkc
345 posts
 

Thanks for the review.

Keep us posted as it breaks in.

Upscale Audio and MusicDirect both report that they keep it in stock and is available for immediate delivery. Strange that you had to wait so long.

skyscraper OP
825 posts
 

Daveyf, thanks. I hope the Fatboy arm works well with the Lyra. The dealer that sold the VPI Fatboy and installed the Lyra on it certainly thought it would. VPI’s owner has used them on demos too. The dealer certainly took the time to accomplish a precise setup and thought the installation met Lyras specs in eacch regard.

I’ve tried to purchase components that all deliver a neutral, clean, uncolored and detailed sound, so hopefully synergy will be there. It would be interesting to be able to substitute some other equipment in to see if there would be more or less synergy. Out here in the boonies that’s unlikely to be able to accomplish though.

Jim, since I’ve always tried to acquire neutral components, so what you are saying seems to apply, although I wonder why that would be so. Wonder how long it might take to get your Delos back too. Might pay to contact the new Lyra rep to get an idea.

Mwiinkc, there have been multiple reports online of individuals waiting eight months or more for their Lyras to arrive, There was even a thread on one on Audiogon just a few days ago, where I advised the OP to contact the new American distribution rep for Lyra. My Lyra arrived not long after contacting that rep, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not. At least one dealer I’m aware of announced discontinuing their line due to this issue.

Mike

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