Lyra Kleos and VPI Aries 3 - will this work

Maxh, Harry will always love you. I think Harry makes some great products, I own a few, and that his business model has made him a wealthy man. However, I don't think he makes the best sound for the buck. A good illustration of this is the 'periphery ring', grossly over priced and technical inferior to the same type product made by TT Wrights. I think Harry's worst disaster was the 'rim drive', technically a step back, overpriced and hard to service. Thank goodness he has moved on with more reasonable priced products.

Maxh - you are making the right move to stick with VPI. The Aries 3 was a significant upgrade from my Aries 1, so the suggestions that their tables went downhill after the Aries 1 is more advice you should ignore.

The Lyras are great too. I could not be happier with what I hear from my Skala on my Aries 3. I am sure you will be thrilled with the Kleos as well.

Buconero117,
I'm staying with the VPI line because of my investment in these transferable upgrades: Classic Aluminum Platter and Bearing, Periphery Ring Clamp, HR-X Stainless Steel Center Weight, and SDS Motor Drive.

I'm trading my Scoutmaster as stock and keeping the upgrades.

Maybe my next table will be from a different manufacturer.

I really like the Ring Clamp for warped records. The SDS drive is easy to use & is a great antidote for the crappy power in this area.

Thanks for the input.
My Scoutmaster has some miles on it & I can trade it toward the Aries 3.
The Lyra Kleos will bust my budget but…

Good listening to all.

I used a Helikon on my HW-19/JMW 10.5 arm for years and it sounded great. I am currently using a Parnassus and a Kleos on JMW 12.5/12.7 arms on a TNT and both sound wonderful. You just need to get the VTA set correctly. The JMW arms make this really easy to do while the record is playing.

I have used three different Lyras with my Aries 3 / JMW 10.5: Skala, Helikon and Helikon mono. All have performed splendidly. No sibilance problems whatsoever. In fact I would say it's quite the opposite. The performance is outstanding in this area.

Take note of those who reported that these are not a good match and be sure to ignore them going forward.

I have heard the Kleos on an Aries 3 and it sounded magnificent. I run a Helikon or a Delos on my Aries 2, having done so for years now, and, after trying Koetsu, van den Hull, Benz Micro and Shelters on this rig, would not even consider changing cartridge manufacturers; the match up between Lyras and VPI's unipivot arms is superb.

Lyras match up beautifully with VPI arms. I have a Super Scoutmaster Ref. with rimdrive and use a Lyra Titan-i on a 10.5i arm with excellent results. Before that I was using a Lyra Skala on the JMW-9 arm.

There are many other tables that better mate with a Lyra. Dump the VPI. Forget about the Aries as after the Aries I, it was all downhill, especially as relates to the platter.

Lyra's and Dynavector are very popular matches with the VPI tables/arms.

Yes, an investment of $8k for a table/arm/cart is a SERIOUS question for me.

Anyone using a Lyra on a VPI table?

You CANNOT possibly be serious with this question.