Hi John: Hope that you are doing well.
One more day to the end of 2011! What a turbulent year it has been!
Lyra doesn't directly set the retail prices in any country. Those are decided by the local distributor.
That said, judging from how long each set of Atlas components takes to make, the component fabrication costs, how long Mishima spends building each Atlas, and also the present value of the Japanese Yen as opposed to other currencies, we are most likely talking about a retail price that is in or approaches Olympos rather than Titan territory.
My guess as to the US retail price would be $9000~9500 or thereabout.
The Titan will therefore remain in production.
Regarding associated equipment, I envision that the Atlas will be somewhat easier (than the Titan) for the phono stage - at least regarding gain and noise, but suspect that the Atlas could be more demanding of the tonearm (particularly the mechanical build aspects).
Much of the Atlas' design concept revolves around increasing mechanical rigidity and allocating escape paths for vibrational energy that are as wide, fast and unimpeded as possible. This allows the process of draining depleted vibrational energy out of the cartridge and into the tonearm to occur more effectively and efficiently.
The above is good news from the cartridge's perspective, but may turn out to be a stiffer challenge for the tonearm.
OTOH, the irregular shape of the Atlas' body helps minimize resonant peaks at specific frequencies and distributes whatever vibrational energy has been picked up more smoothly and evenly.
FWIW, I also have a TriPlanar. I am not convinced that it can extract the full potential of an Atlas (or even a Titan), but it is a relatively forgiving-sounding arm, and will most likely sound quite pleasing.
Frank Schroeder has a new zero-tracking error arm that should work quite well, and the Spiral Groove Centroid has impressed me with its overall linearity and particularly its clear pitch and note articulation in the lower octaves. I've had good results with the Phantom, but I would have to give the performance nod to the Centroid.
Other arms that I think should work well include (but by no means are limited to) Da Vinci, Basis, Continuum, Brinkmann, Micha Huber, and so on.
kind regards, jonathan
