Brand new Lyra Delos - skewed cantilever

That is very un Lyra like and most definitely wrong. I would send those pictures to your dealer. It should be replaced. Unfortunately, you should have reported it before you mounted it. The tendency is going to be to blame you for Fing it up somehow. But, if the cantilever is not bent midshaft it is their problem. Get to it ASAP.

@mijostyn : please be aware that the issue has already been taken care of, that Lyra has finished servicing @anthos314 Delos and he has received his cartridge back.

Incidentally, the reason why this Delos had a skewed cantilever was not due to a manufacturing issue. Rather, somewhere between us (manufacturer) and anthos314 (customer), someone re-torqued the screw holding the front magnet carrier (which corresponds to the front yoke of a conventional MC). This twisted the front magnet carrier, which affected the alignment of the cantilever and its freedom of movement.

We know this because when we received the Delos, in addition to the front magnet carrier being at an angle (which anthos3147s photos show), its mounting screw had been tightened with far higher torque than our specifications allow.

As to how, when, where or who fiddled with the front magnet carrier, this could have been occurred in the process of a customs inspection, it could have been something else, we have no idea. All that we can say is what the evidence on the cartridge tells us happened to it.

@anthos314, if you can use a very low-capacitance tonearm cable (preferably short), you are likely to find that the sonically optimal load changes.

hth, jonathan

@jcarr , Thank you for responding. Serves me right for not reading the entire post.

You might want to use some Loctite on those screws:-)  I'm sure you have seen a bunch of odd things happen to your cartridges besides broken cantilevers. We'd love to hear the stories! 

Anyway, like I said before, "Very Un Lyra Like." I have never heard anything but great quality and service from Lyra. 

2 questions. What do you think of transimpedance phono stages and When will the Lyra Atlas Lambda SL be available again?

@mijostyn , Lyra cartridges are hand-made, and as humans we can't claim to be infallible - but when there is an issue that could have been caused by our manufacturing, we try to work together with the customer, our dealers and distributors so that the customer is satisfied.

Regarding the Atlas Lambda SL, our cartridge models (more so the Etna and Atlas) are generally manufactured according to incoming orders from dealers which are then conveyed to our distributors. Some experienced dealers are able to gauge demand ahead of time and can therefore deliver when the customer wants a product. Other dealers may be more cautious and not wish to place orders via our distributors until they are sure that they have a firm sale. The availability of a given model therefore depends on the situation.

Regarding transimpedance phono stages, I've used various types over the years. I recall all of them as sounding satisfactory.
OTOH, I cannot recall any of the transimpedance phono stages that I've heard as delivering a revelatory listening experience. (Caveat: it is entirely possible that some of the phono stages that have impressed me have had transimpedance input stages, but I wasn't aware of this.)

The situation with voltage-input phono stages has been the reverse. The phono stages that my ears have had an aversion to have primarily been voltage input, but the phono stages that I felt sounded markedly better than most have also been voltage input. (Caveat: that's with my ears, others may feel differently.)

One must accept that with semiconductor current-input, semiconductor voltage input, tube voltage input (I'm not aware of any tube-based current-input products), SUT input etc., there can be substantially different types of implementations.
Local NFB current input, global NFB current input, complementary input semiconductor, non-complementary input semiconductor (or tube), BJT voltage input, JFET voltage input, tube voltage input, SUT into MM stage with an input load capacitor, SUT into MM stage sans input load capacitor etc.
How the RIAA equalization is accomplished (one-stage active, two-stage active, passive-active, passive-passive, passive with inductors rather than resistors, having an active RIAA network shape both the open-loop and closed-loop response simultaneously) is another major variable, not only by itself, but because of how it interacts with the signal input approach.
Each implementation of signal input approach and RIAA equalization approach will have its unique issues and pitfalls.. that hopefully the circuit designer understands well enough to avoid, or at least mitigate.
Unfortunately adequately grasping the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches and implementations is beyond most customers unless they have EE training. And even so, there are dedicated books on phono stage design that leave gaping areas unanswered.
Therefore I suggest that the most productive way is visit audio shows, dealers, and other audiophiles until you encounter a phono stage that you really like the sound of. Reviews and forum comments can be useful to form a candidate shortlist, but at the end, it is your ears that need to be satisfied.

hth, jonathan

Great thread!  

@anthos314 I have used three different Lyra's over the past several years. I started with a Delos, then an Atlas and now an Etna SL.  Haven't had the chance to listen to a lambda version in my system.  They all share a "house" sound and the Delos is an amazing cart.

I wanted to briefly address the issues that you and others with Lyra carts have brought up, the unique sound of their carts and the impression of being a little lean in sound.  While I don't disagree with adjusting your cartridge loading but this has a very subtle effect with my phono pre (PASS XP-27). I have found that I get a more full bodied sound without sacrificing the amazing top end clarity when I have the SRA/VTA optimized. My lyra is mounted on a Kuzma 4point 9. I use the Wally Reference tools to find the level at which the cart is parallel to the record and then a USB scope to adjust the SRA to 92 degrees. When you get the SRA close to 92 degrees, you can make further small adjustments by listening.  You will find the meat on the bone you are looking for.  

Enjoy.