Lyra Etna Versus Kleos

I own Delos, Etna SL and Atlas. I have owned the Kleos in the past, which to my ears is Lyra's weakest cartridge.

  Stick with Delos until you can afford the Etna.

I had now a couple of chances to hear a direct shoot out
(performed by the German Lyra importer) of the Kleos, Etna and Atlas.
Last time it were the 3 SL versions.

All cartridges were mounted in the same tonearms and worked
with the same phono stage.

With all music examples the Atlas was the best and the Kleos had
to settle for position three. The Etna sometimes was closer to the
Kleos and sometimes closer to the Atlas.

Dear @racedoc: Those 3 models has the same type of design that is different from the other lYRA MODELS AS THE tITAN OR ANY OTHER IN THE lYRA CATALOG.

We have to remember that the Kleos appeared in the market way before the Atlas and the Etna, both are a refinement cartridges from the Kleos that's why you said that the Etna sometimes performs nearer to the Kleos and sometimes nearer to the Atlas.

Very good cartridges.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

The Etna was designed to be similar in terms of overall competence to the Atlas, but have a different set of strengths. As a result, some systems and listeners may prefer the Atlas, while others may prefer the Etna.

At least to my ears, Roy Gregory got it right in his recent Etna review on Audio Beat.
http://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/lyra_etna.htm

Dear @jcarr : If I remember when MF made it the Stereophile review on the Etna his comments were similar on the RG ones. He said that overall the Etna was your best effort ( or something like that. ).

Even than the Kleos is not an " Etna " by quality performance and price tag it's very good too.

I imagine that you are thinking or working in a cartridge that could in the future outperform these top performers. Cartridges in the Lyra price range are very competitive market in between where is dificult to say for sure which is the best one. At this quality level performance quality in cartridges is at the top and what exist are differences but maybe no outperform one to the other. Exactly as both reviews and your comment on strengths to each model.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.