Lyra Atlas experiences


A few years ago, I invested in a Lyra Atlas cartridge / pickup. I have moved up, from Lyra Clavis in the early 2000s and Lyra Titan i later. The Atlas was expensive, but I have not looked back. Yet I wonder, can something more be done, to optimize the Atlas, in my system, and others. How can this remarkable pickup run its best. What are the best phono preamp and system matches. Should the system be rearranged. Have anyone done mods or DIYs to their systems to get the "reception" right? What happened? Comments welcome. You dont need to own a Lyra Atlas but you should have heard it, to join this discussion. Comments from the folks at Lyra are extra welcome - what is your experience.
Oystein
Ag insider logo xs@2xo_holter

@dwette , You are correct. I forgot about Clearaudio's magnetic bearing. However, even though you are happy with what you have, record weights and peripheral clamps do not do an adequate job of flattening a wayward record. The other problem with peripheral clamps is that they are large, heavy and in very close proximity to a tiny, very fragile, expensive and very open cantilever. You will not be the first person to knock their cantilever off with a peripheral clamp. The Michell Clamp is relatively inexpensive, try it. If you don't like it I'll buy it from you for whatever you paid. You can use the peripheral clamp for a frisbee :-)

@mijostyn Thanks for the suggestions, but I’ll pass on trying a different clamp. I’ve used what I have for years and it suites me well enough. It doesn’t have to be 100% effective or the best solution. 

Just a small update. My Atlas 2018 is still working well. No problems. I know I should wash my LPs but dry cleaning with the Mobile fidelity brush works ok for most of them, not much clicks or mistracking. Maybe it sounds a bit better with a bit of fluid in the SME V damping chamber - not  sure, testing. Platter mats - no. Extra damping on the  arm - no. Fozgometer azimuth adjustment, yes. 

Dwette, you actually think you hear a difference between 453 and 470 ohms loading? I am either impressed with your auditory acuity or dubious. Or wondering about your phono stage.

@lewm yes, I am hearing differences. The 453Ω load doesn’t have the dynamics and treble extension of the 470Ω. I’ve actually abandoned the 453Ω load and am comparing 470Ω and 500Ω now. For sure, they are very close. For jazz and rock close enough to be a toss up. However, on classical there are differences in midrange texture, dynamics and treble extension. 470Ω is a bit warmer, and I might like that better for classical, but 500Ω is a tad more dynamic, and has slightly better ability to resolve inner details. In the end I’ll go with I like better for classical music.

I have a Naim Superline phono stage with the optional Supercap DR PSU and HiLine DIN IC cable.

The reason I care about evaluating this is that once I have landed on the resistive value I like, Chris West at AV Options will build me a custom loading plug, based on a Naim Airplug with cryo’d z-foil resistors. It’s rather expensive so I want to get the resistive value right, as changing it after the fact isn’t cheap either.