New Lyra Delos Cartridge

Well, I am mightly confused. The Lyra guys say >91 ohms. I can't tolerate listening to it at that loading in my setup. I have to load it down to 5-10 ohms using a SUT, and then it sounds very good. With a solid state phono-pre it doesn't seem to matter so much (100 ohms sound ok), but the solid state rig is not working at the same level as my SUT/tube rig. So it is kind of hard to tell anything from the comparison.

I am not yet convinced that the reason that my SUT/tube rig sounds bad at 100 ohms is that the SUT is overloading the tube MM input. At 16x and 100 ohms the input is about 9mV. But even during soft passages, the transients don't seem to sound right. There could be something wrong elsewhere in my system. However, I am tempted to send the Delos back for an inspection, just to be sure that it is performing correctly. I bought it used, so it will have to be at my expense.

I like the sound when loading between 5-10 ohms; but since this is radically different from what the manufacturer suggests, I have to assume that something is not right in my rig, or with the cartridge. (Or maybe the Delos is just hotter than I can tolerate... but no one else seems to have this experience, or maybe blah, blah, blah).

I find it interesting that Manitunc likes 10 ohms even with a SS preamp. But I am curious what settings others are using with SUTs and what the turns ratio is on the SUTs.

I did not want to leave this discussion hanging with a lot of ambiguity as regards my experience with the Delos. So here is how it all shook out for me.

I am using a K&K Lundahl 1941 sut with an Audio Innovations P2 (modded) phono pre. The K&K was new and the Delos had very few hours on it. Over about six weeks time the sound changed considerably. Basically the wierd timbre and the aggressive transients gradually cleared up. Over that period of time I gradually reduced the load until I am now using no extra load resistors. I have 16x sut into a 47k phono pre for an effective load of about 180 ohms.

It sounds great. I do not know why this gradual change occurred. I have read discussions of the Lundahl 1931 and 1941 which both use some kind of amorphous cobalt core. Some people said they preferred the mu-metal versions (1933 and 1943) because they felt that the timbre was off with the 1931 and 1941. I had the same experience initially. Now I can find nothing to criticize about the 1941 in this regard. I have been listening to the cellist Christine Walevska's recordings lately, and the tone she gets is absolutely beautiful. All instruments sound accurate now, and the cartridge sounds neutral and balanced from top to bottom.

So bottom line is that this setup now sounds great without having to resort to load resistors and/or unusual cartridge alignment. And no, I am not overloading my phono-pre. I have never been one to pay a lot of attention to 'break-in', but that is the only explanation that I am left with.

One more thing. After everything settled out I revisited the tubes. While the Sovtek 12ax7lps is a good tube, I ended up using a Telefunken 12ax7 smooth-plate at the input, Telefunken 12au7 smooth-plate at the second gain stage, and two RCA 12au7 cleartops at the buffered output. The Telefunkens just have a more refined sound - to my ears.