Anyone using a Lyra Delos yet?

11-28-10: Audiofeil
No cd player can approach the bottom end of a properly set-up vinyl front end.

that hasn't been my experience.

11-28-10: Moonglum
Paperw8, I'm also starting to use a Delos into the Whest (although not the dual transformer version) on the 55db setting.

55dB will send a signal of about 1/3 volt to the preamplifier where 60dB sends a signal of about 0.6 volts to the preamplifier. the difference is that in the former case you will have to turn the volume control higher to achieve a given sound pressure level from your speakers. as far as i can tell, a lot of it is a matter of preference and matching signal amplitude levels with other sources. in my case, my preamplifier has an input sensitivity of 0.5 volt and i wanted to make the signal amplitude level from the phono stage comparable to that of my cd player. that said, from what i've observed, using the minimum phono stage gain value seems advantageous since you can compensate in the preamplifier, which works with a large signal than that coming from the cartridge.

as to on-the-fly vta adjustment capability, i suppose the idea is that the tonearm makes the adjustment so gradually that it doesn't damage the cartridge, but i am still disinclined to use the capability. i don't do vta on a per-record basis either although a good vta can make a noticeable difference in sound reproduction. it can be a bit of a hassle because depending on how much you change the vta you might also have to readjust the vtf. i pretty much set the vtf in the middle of the range so that the tonearm stays stable on difficult-to-track records.

>>11-28-10: Paperw8
that hasn't been my experience.<<

Fair enough.

You need more experience.

It hasn't been my experience either. Twenty five years, at least a half dozen different turntable/tonearm combinations with at least a twenty different cartridges. Some dealer set up and some by me using various alignment tools. To my ear vinyl beats digital in some very important areas but not in bass authority, impact and weight. Heresy? Maybe, but I'm with Paperw8 on this one.

25 years of experience makes you a young man dodgealum.

There's plenty of time remaining to find it.

Good luck to you and the weight.