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Hi Harry
your comments above could describe going to a different design speaker. :^)
Who are these people that say the source is not amongst the most important in the audio chain ? Try pulling this one off with digital; with such a small change to the source setup.
This setup is, however, ruthless.
Your Lyra uses a
Namiki microridge line-contact nude diamond stylus (2.5um x 75um)
see Soundsmith comments that follow below asterisks.
I am reading into your comments that your ET2 with the 3 spring setup and the Lyra Delos is pretty much dissecting your albums now. Good ones - sound amazing. Not good ones - can no longer be listened to? Not great if you are a music lover with many albums.
Have you tried lowering VTA on the bright sounding ones and raising it on the muddy sounding ? Records, even same thickness ones are cut at different vertical angles depending on the plant they were made at. This is covered in detail by Bruce in the manual. The ET2 happens to be the only tonearm in the world (due to patent) that adjusts VTA without changes to anything else in the alignment (like VTF). (if the VTA block is set up right)
I think from a pure groove tracking sense your ET2 with the triple leaf spring is set up for Indy 500 Oval right now. If records were made the same and uniform physically like CD’s; this would work better. But the records and grooves are more like the races that go through cities. Each one is very different. I think, along with VTA adjustments, you will need some cushioning/damping.
So will be interested to hear how things change with first the double spring suspension, and also VTA changes.
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From Soundsmith describes styli on your cartridge.
http://www.sound-smith.com/articles/stylus-shape-information
Then, there are the "fine line" styli, including standard Contact Line, as well as the more esoteric evolutions such as Shibata, Micro Line or Ridge, Optimized Contour Contact Line (Soundsmith) and so on. These are almost always nudes, for lowest possible mass. These designs have a sharper edge (radius) that play the record groove walls, which allows better high frequency reproduction (especially at the inner grooves where it is more difficult) resulting in lower distortion, better imaging, depth, and many other aspects of fine analog listening that are lost when the high frequencies are not resolved as well - usually by lower quality stylus shapes.
The higher end designs, however, require far more precise alignment than the lower quality shapes, for what should be obvious reasons. It is easier to align a rounded end to a groove than a V shaped end. Alignment issues for both rotating off a vertical imaginary line in the groove looking end on, as well as tilting front to back along the groove become far more critical for proper tracing of the groove.
Then there are noise and wear issues. Conicals statistically trace less surface area of the groove wall, so can theoretically pick up less record damage (unless they trace an area where there HAS been lots of wear or damage) and can pick up fewer sonic bursts from defects or noise from dirt or other foreign objects in the groove. But the wear factor is higher (faster) for both the record and styli. Alignment considerations however, are much easier to achieve. But far poorer high frequency response. For analog, that’s bad.
Conversely, the fine line designs require records that are in better condition and cleaner to be played mainly noise free. But the reward for playing a good clean undamaged record with a properly aligned fine line diamond and quality cartridge cannot be overly described in terms of enjoyment.
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Curious to know how your wife is dealing with your newfound tweaking/ hot-rodding behavior as you are in a shared space ?
Chris