LYRA DELOS CARTRIDGE TOO BRIGHT, THIN AND SHRILL SOUNDING

 Not everyone is a skilled tech and very few have a tech who can handle TT-101.  

Is your second TT 101 under repair or is it on standby?

Dear OP....
Something is drastically wrong either with your set up or the cartridge itself.  I've had a Delos going on 7 years and am very happy with it.  Replaced a Benz Micro Glider.  Ask the store where you bought it for an exchange.  It is made by a human and therefore subject to any number of manufacturing errors.
Good luck, let us know how you make out...

I like the Delos very much.  I find it plays best at between 1.7 and 1.72 tracking force.

Before you give up on this cartridge, unless you already have given up on it, I recommend that you send it to SoundSmith or any retipper who offers an inspection service. As someone else said, these devices are made by humans, and it is quite possible that there is a fault in the construction of your particular sample. For the nominal cost of inspection, it is well worth it to make sure you do not have a defective cartridge. Typically such defects can be easily and cheaply corrected.Alternatively, send it to Lyra for inspection. Surely there is no one more qualified.

The Delos is real fast sounding and not particularly romantic, I can see how some might not like it.  I thought it was a ton of fun.

That said it's a bugger to get set up properly, if you aren't aligned correctly it'll let you know for sure.  The alignment, VTA and VTF have to be dialled in to hear what this cartridge can really do.  

If you're 100% confident it's set up correctly and you don't like it after the requisite 100 hours time to move on...