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Lyra Kleos arrives after eight months. . Worth the wait? First impressions

About nine months ago I posted some threads on Audiogon to get advice concerning upgrading the Ortofon Black 2M, moving magnet cartridge on my VPI Classic 2 turntable. You all ended up convincied me to not only to upgrade my cartridge, but to upgrade a VPI JMW unipivot tonearm to a VPI gimballed Fatboy tonearm. And after carefully considering all your recommendations, plus doing a lot of research, a Lyra Kleos moving coil cartridge was chosen and ordered.

The VPI Fatboy, ordered about March 1, arrived right away. However the new Lyra cartrdge took a full eight months to arrive from that same date. Apparently there is only one person in Japan with a single assistant making every Lyra cartridge. Picture this poor soul working day and night, chained to the floor in a small basement room with only his assistant Igor to help.

The Lyra Kleos cartridge is now happily and professionally installed on the Fatboy. It has maybe ten or so hours on it at this point. Most noticeable so so far is a better defined bass response. Elements of the sound stage also seem to be more clealy defined. Paticularly on better recorded albums, you can hear everything more clearly, as well as hear things that were simply lost in the mix before. For instance on a Sade record I distinctly heard a background singer singling softly along with her which had never been apparent before. Every sound seems better realized in more detail and depth especially on better recorded albums. On more poorly recorded content, not so much.

All in all I’m happy with the results so far. It took about three hours of break in before the cartridge began to open up. My first clue on how well this cart could perform was listening to a Jaco Pastorius bass run on a nicely recorded Joni Mitchell album. That was exciting. Some older Mies Davis and Charles Mingus sounded great too. On some other material like Mike Bloomfields Live at the Fillmore West the sound wan’t much improved over the Ortofon 2M cart. My ECM records all sounded more well defined so far.

What has been your experience with a Lyra cartridge if you have one? Have you been pleased with yours. At about how many hours did yours peak out. I’ve read their performance peaks at anywhere from 20 to 100 hourswhich is quite a range. What’s your experience? If you knew yours would take eight months to arrive would you have gone another route?

Mike

 

skyscraper
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,857 posts
 

Congrats on the new cartridge, it's a keeper.

One thing about the Kleos and the new angle Lyra's in general, they require a very precise set-up and benefit from exact loading, depending on the phono stage and the phono cable. In my system, 750 ohms works best, but that may not apply to all applications. My Kleos really opened up after about 90+ hours, and now it sings. I have heard this cartridge in arms that don't really work for it, generally because they are too heavy, and are unable to be set up precisely to include SRA, VTF and Azimuth. So the key to getting the most out of these Lyra's, IME- is one word..synergy. 

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,884 posts
 

lyra are imo worth the wait. My Delos will go back to Japan soon. 50-100 hours seems about right. Your and others observations about suitability for a type of music is an audiophile curse for neutral components….  We all suffer this to some degree. Your Black was pretty neutral  expecting a Lyra to be much different in that dimension is unfounded. Best to you and enjoy the music ;-)

Jim

mwinkc
363 posts
 

Thanks for the review.

Keep us posted as it breaks in.

Upscale Audio and MusicDirect both report that they keep it in stock and is available for immediate delivery. Strange that you had to wait so long.

skyscraper OP
828 posts
 

Daveyf, thanks. I hope the Fatboy arm works well with the Lyra. The dealer that sold the VPI Fatboy and installed the Lyra on it certainly thought it would. VPI’s owner has used them on demos too. The dealer certainly took the time to accomplish a precise setup and thought the installation met Lyras specs in eacch regard.

I’ve tried to purchase components that all deliver a neutral, clean, uncolored and detailed sound, so hopefully synergy will be there. It would be interesting to be able to substitute some other equipment in to see if there would be more or less synergy. Out here in the boonies that’s unlikely to be able to accomplish though.

Jim, since I’ve always tried to acquire neutral components, so what you are saying seems to apply, although I wonder why that would be so. Wonder how long it might take to get your Delos back too. Might pay to contact the new Lyra rep to get an idea.

Mwiinkc, there have been multiple reports online of individuals waiting eight months or more for their Lyras to arrive, There was even a thread on one on Audiogon just a few days ago, where I advised the OP to contact the new American distribution rep for Lyra. My Lyra arrived not long after contacting that rep, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not. At least one dealer I’m aware of announced discontinuing their line due to this issue.

Mike

fsonicsmith's avatar
fsonicsmith
941 posts
 

I have the Etna. See my profile (if you like). With my Reed 3P arm which comes with it's own wire from clips to RCA's and a Manley Steelhead I prefer the 50 ohm setting over 100 or 200. It seems the autoformers in the Steelhead do some unique things compared to more common phono circuit designs. So the fact that 50 ohms works best in my system means little or nothing for others with different cabling and a different phono stage. Don't ignore gain! The Steelhead offers 50, 55, 60, and 65. On paper 60 ought be optimum IIRC but I much prefer 55. The difference is subtle but to my ears with my gear the higher gain setting results in just a bit of stridency and glare that disappears at 55. With my ancillary gear obtaining sufficient volume is not an issue at any gain setting and I remain at the lower third of volume range with my ARC Ref 6 irrespective of gain setting. 

As to SQ, my other deck, My Thorens TD124 with another Reed 3P has a VdH Crimson XGW Stradivarius mounted. Both go into the Steelhead (I love having three phono inputs on my Steelhead!) and by pure coincidence I prefer the same gain and loading with both. I go back and forth as to which I prefer. The Lyra Etna is supreme with the very best pressings but at the cost of being ever so slightly analytical compared to the VdH. The VdH is slightly fleshier, not as lightning quick and lacks the extremely tight bass of the Lyra but the music flows in a slightly more pleasing fashion. The VdH is a chameleon as I can never predict if a particular record will sound amazing or just good, whereas the Lyra is a bit more even-handed with well pressed records. Both are equally finicky as to set-up-when things are perfect you know it. 

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