Lyra Atlas experiences


A few years ago, I invested in a Lyra Atlas cartridge / pickup. I have moved up, from Lyra Clavis in the early 2000s and Lyra Titan i later. The Atlas was expensive, but I have not looked back. Yet I wonder, can something more be done, to optimize the Atlas, in my system, and others. How can this remarkable pickup run its best. What are the best phono preamp and system matches. Should the system be rearranged. Have anyone done mods or DIYs to their systems to get the "reception" right? What happened? Comments welcome. You dont need to own a Lyra Atlas but you should have heard it, to join this discussion. Comments from the folks at Lyra are extra welcome - what is your experience.
Oystein
Ag insider logo xs@2xo_holter
How much did it cost to rebuild your Atlas. I’m facing a possible rebuild and may cost $5995
That is 50% off a new Atlas. You get a brand new Atlas as Lyra do a complete rebuild - the only thing reused is the body.
Sounds like a good deal to me for one of the best cartridges one can buy.

Rebuild costs are similar % in Australia.
Dear @tommyboy65 : I started to own LYra cartridge from the Evolve model passing for almost all models and as I said in that post I heard the Atlas too.

problem is not the Atlas, .poblem is that all tube I/O model.

Yes the Lyra and the specific Atlas " is terrific " performer even that you listen it through tubes that's the wrong electronics ( and yes, I owned and listened top tube electronics including the OP model and that's why I said what I said it. First hand experiences. ) to any LOMC cartridge. Tha's all.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
Dear @downunder : The A90 as almost all top Ortofon models in the past  are not " expensive " as you said against other top cartridges as Lyra, Clearaudio, Air Tigth and the like.

This is the first time that I read a compliant in the treplicant Ortofon stylus tip regarding its playing time that you said " only " 1000 hours vs 3K hours against Lyra.

I own and owned Ortofon cartridges with replicant and non-replicant stylus tip shapes and never gave me any trouble, maybe because not over 1K hours but if I remember a scientific research by Ortofn people found out that over 500 hours the quality level performance of any cartridge ( Ortofon or non-Ortofon. ) begin  to fall down due to the playing hours where stylus tip starts to shows signs of that terrible and hard cartridge job over the LP grooves. If we want to mantain the " same " quality level performance on top cartridges I think that between 500-750 but no more than 1K hours needs for a a retipp.
Problem is that because we are listen it day by day we really don't take in count that lower and lower quality performance levels but exist that way.

Now, the 100th anniversary is a total Ortofon departure in their cartridge designs because for the very first time they use diamond as cantilever build material when Ortofon never showed to use more " sophisticated and expensive " cartridge materials but more focus in its design and excecution very high quality to that cartridge design.


Please do it me a favor and buy one an after 500 hours I will buy it from you. That cartridge is a must to have.

Btw, the Atlas SL has more "  pure and forgiven " sound because it has lower output that means less coild wire.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
I am running my Lyra Atlas - it is maybe a total of 14 - 1500 hours by now.

No major problems. The bad spots in my vinyl collection are like before (mistracking, sibilance).

It has become more "slack" than in the beginning, as is to be expected. Mainly it works to the best, sonically (a bit more more rounded, mellow, ambience-tuned, dimensional).

Michael Fremer got problems with the Atlas after four years - his copy was bought in 2013, like mine. But he described "heavy usage". I suspect this means 2500 - 3000 hours or even more. At that point he heard clear signs of wear, especially, more sibilance. So far, this is not a problem on my cartridge.

Generally, yes, the Atlas is a big investment. But I have never looked back.

The Atlas goes so deep that the woofers can pump (subsonic movement), at least in some arm combinations with low resonance, like my SME V. Yet this usually means good sound, it is not very serious, in my judgement so far. See
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/why-are-my-woofers-pumping