Kleos Sibilance

Hello Bill (Audiofeil)
I know this sounds like a discussion that appears to be going back and forth, "yes it will-no it won't", but in the hopes of learning something, and hoping you folks will share some of your seasoned knowledge, why do you think this is?

Is it maybe not so much the JMW Arm can be accused of being poorly built, or would you say it is more a cause of the type-design of Arm it is, that it is a Unipivot?

I'm reminiscing back, to hear Doug D's words, when he once gave comment about how he noted that some Unipivots he teamed with some of the ZYX Cartridges, just didn;t seem to cut it. If I remember, his term was "wooly", and I know wooly can be a vague term to describe, but do you think that this what what Doug was getting at, that in some cases with these highly revealing MC Cartridges, that the Unipivot design may be a wrong choice, and falls short?

I know you see the Hadcock, I believe another Unipivot design. So is the Shroder, right?

Is it a mismatch of compliance, or something else then?
Mark

"A 0.05 gram difference in effective mass is insignificant."

A Helikon is 8 g and the Kleos is 8.8 g.

Just for clarity, I am not saying Bill is wrong about the arm being the issue. I just don't understand. My dealer had a Helikon on a 9 sig for probably years without an issue. In the past I would increase the tracking force but Mr. Carr is so adament about not going beyond 1.8.

How about a Sota Sapphire or Star with the 309? Still have my pace and transient speed?

Thanks

It's going to take 100 hours for the cartridge to break in. Intially with the Lyras, they'll sound thin, detailed but the extremes aren't going to be happening; then you're going to have a period say between 15-25 hours where the cartridge actually sounds like it's mistracking. Get through that period and then the extremes start to come in and then the cartridge suspension begins to relax. Then your dynamics will start to open up.

You're also going to have to play with SRA since like most modern cartridges, Lyras are particularly sensitive to set up.

OTOH, one does need to ask also if what you're hearing is actually on the LP and you're hearing the album as it was recorded. No one will ever accuse, even the newer Lyras of being romantic.

I've had 3 Kleos here in the past year and none of them took anywhere near 100 hours to settle in. Perhaps 30 at the most. Your ears are acclimating to the cartridge more than the cartridge is changing.

The VTA/SRA is really quite simple and not nearly as complex as other moving coils. Delos and Kleos are designed so that the top surface of the cartridge is parallel with the record. Very little adjustment beyond that is necessary.

The key parameter, as Robob indicated, is VTF. This is where the user needs to focus. There are noticeable differences in the 1.68 to 1.75 range.

IMO

Well as they say, YMMV.

I haven't found a cartridge that isn't sensitive to VTF,esp. near its optimal value. That is brought out even more by the Soundsmith Counter Intuitive where one can very easily adjust VTF in 1/100th of a gram in no time at all.