Lyra Titan i and Olympos SL

Mosin may have misread my response, or else I miswrote it.

The Olympos is not the finest cartridge I've heard and I did not say so. I said it sounds "glorious" and then asked the OP to consider whether that's what he's seeking. In short, I agree with Dre and Dgad regarding its sound.

Whether one wants a glorious sounding cartridge is a personal question. IME not all recorded music is well served by "a brush of mink". For my ears, recorded music is served best when reproduced as accurately as possible. The Olympos is certainly good at that, better than 90% of the cartridges out there, but compared to the very best its "glorious-ness" means that it's less than (or maybe more than) honest. Your choice whether that's what you want.

I would never describe the best turntable I've heard (Mosin's own Saskia) as sounding "glorious", since that would be an insult which it did nothing to earn. What his table sounds like, more than any other I've heard, is no table at all. I rarely pay audio compliments, preferring descriptors instead, but "nothing" would be the highest compliment I know.

The OP didn't ask about other cartridges, but if he had I'd have said what Halcro did, assuming well matched components and a willingness to do the work that a UNIverse requires to give its best. IME no other cartridge, including an Olympos or a Titan, is quite as demanding of (or responsive to) exacting setup and fine tuning.

Dear Tora: As always the quality performance in cartridges is system dependent especially on tonearm and Phonolinepreamp.

It is system dependent because every single home audio system is different from others due ( mainly ) to owner priorities that in the best cases are good priorities due to owner in deep know-how on audio and music but normally is not in this way and several audio systems are really with out synergy and heavy colored and that's why there are big differences in the individual opinions.

I heard the Titan-i in at least five systems ( including mine ) and I like what I heard only in two of them where IMHO the systems have real/true synergy, what I heard?: a natural performance with very good tonal balance top to bottom with no frequency range superior to other fast attack/transients and with transparency all over the frequency spectrum, it is perfect: no, nothing is and you can detect that the Titan is not the best tracker and time t time you can hear tracking distortion that can give to the high frequency range a false spark that heard like over-detailed.

The Olympos is totally different ( very low output say to start against the Titan. ) and here as important as is the tonearm the Phonolinepreamp has to be first rate nothing less.
The Olympos IMHO is way better performer than any of the other cartridges named here ( I already heard all them ), when you listen the very first recording notes you know with out any doubt that everything is right on target forget about the cartridge and all the hardware and start to enjoy the music alone, this fact makes that the Olympos is on other level than the Titan that when you are hearing it you know is a cartridge/hardware because its performance remind you it is a cartridge what you are hearing,instead with the Olympos you are inside the music.

The Olympos is very near/nearest I can say almost there to the best 2-3 MM quality performers including: no tracking ( or very low ) distortion.

Tora, btw which is your analog rig? are you prepared for the Olympos needs? or the Titan needs? Why don't you share with us your system components and what you are looking for on cartridges, as a fact there are several and very good alternatives about.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

I would like to thank Dougdeacon, Halcro, Mosin, Dre j, Dgad and rauliruegas for their replies. They are all very helpful to give me an idea of what to expect from the sonic differences of these two cartridges, especially in relation to the Lyra Olympos. Here in U. K. it is almost impossible to be able to hear these two fine cartridges in an A-B comparison in a hi-end shop. Hence I seek for advice from members of Audiogon. I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year... and as they said,'keep those black discs spinning!'

As Rauliruegas said, cartridges can be system dependent. For instance, if u have a bright system, then a rolled off cartridge will help balance it, etc.

One thing that is probably of the utmost importance in regards to the Titan is the choice of arm. The better the arm, the better the sound of the Titan. In other words, besides just matching mass, how the cartridge and arm interact eg. how the arm treats the arm energy produced by the cartridge tracing the groove will have a huge effect upon the resultant sound. You can get out of phase reflections that among other things, greatly affect dynamics.

Hi Tora,
how did the story go on?

Other, newer impressions about and comparisons between Titan i and Skala and Olympos?