New Lyra Delos Cartridge

Didn't edit the previous post - accidentally submitted it. This brilliant tablet has a mind of its own when it comes to offering alternative spellings and word without asking me first...

apologies.

I talked to the Lyra guys who were very helpful. I was all wrong with what I was doing.

They clarified their instructions. The load that you use with the Delos should be the same regardless of whether you use a SUT or a MC phono preamp - that is, > 90 Ohms. The note about SUTs in the instructions does NOT refer to loading. It refers to the kind of SUT that you use. The SUT should be one that is designed for cartridges with an internal impedance from 5 - 15 ohms. The Delos is about 8.

The 10x SUT that I was using was designed for 20 - 40 ohms cartridges, not low impedance cartridges. I don't know how low and high impedance SUTs differ, but apparently they do. The other SUT is designed for low impedance cartridges but has 16x and 32x taps. Without loading these down significantly, my MM input was overloading - too much gain.

So bottom line is that the specified load for the Delos is > 91 ohms, regardless of what sort of step up method that you choose. If you choose a SUT make sure that you don't overload the MM input.

Thanks for that bit of importnat information. I, too,misinterpreted the Delos instructions.

But what if your phono pre only gives you a choice of 100 ohms? Is that "close enough"? I'm considering getting this cartridge to replace my trusty Dynavector 17D3. My Simaudio Moon 310LP offers loading options of 10, 100, 470, 1K and 47k ohms.

100 ohms will work fine with this cartridge - that is what I was using before 500 ohms was suggested to me. To be honest - I heard no real sonic improvement/difference between the two. The Delos is a magnificent cartridge for the money.