LYRA DELOS CARTRIDGE TOO BRIGHT, THIN AND SHRILL SOUNDING

@avanti1960 you basically mirrored what I said and the response was:

"lesson learned. a 2000 dollar Cartridge isn’t always better than a 1200 dollar one. HANA ML is a giant killer!!!"

Something is definately wrong in my opinion as well but it doesn’t seem the OP is looking to solve the issue he is having. He has gotten some solid advice.

If he really wants to get to the bottom of what’s going on, this is the person he should reach out to:

Alasdair Patrick

Apatrick@audioquest.com

I would say that it could be a setup factor or you could be experiencing a mismatch with your phonostage.

delos is what op described and also require quite substantial burn in like all mc.  and you need a warmer turntable and system to complement it well.. it's very open and sharp thus very picky to setup and system matching.  

very narrow margin of setting. the bad part about Lyra is that the diamond mounting is not gold standard. so need to magnify and check at least. 

jvc tonearm ua 7045 and TT 81 101 works extremely well with it.  which easy and cheap to buy. very analog. resolved. powerful and musical combo. 

hana VS Lyra is a totally opposite.. try soundsmith if somewhere in the middle of both. 

I have a Koetsu which is highly sensitive to setup. Suggest you check:
(1) VTA: try the cartridge tail down
(2) Azimuth: turn it a fraction of a degree and observe increase or decrease in distortion
(3) torque of mounting screws (I'm not kidding) with a torque screwdriver; uneven torque is worse than the wrong torque.

Good luck!

As has been stated above.

Set up, set up, set up...

Overhang, alignment, VTF, VTA, Azimuth, Anti Skate, mounting screws...

Until, all those have been done perfectly for your cartridge, and properly for how the diamond has been mounted to the cantilever, then you can't begin to deal with loading etc., or judge its sonic potential.

Has it indeed been perfectly set up?