Lyra or ZYX ?

This is not easy I suppose. Helikon is traditionally known to be fast and lean and I am not really looking for that kind of sound. I am looking for something that is naturally detailed. I read some good things about Delos so considering it.

I also remember reading somewhere that ZYX cant do rock and pop well. How far is that true ? 30-40% of my consumption is classic rock and blues.

The Zyx R100 is indeed a good deal. Good sound, uncritical to Arms, makes life easy. The Delos is a cartridge which is probably one of the best ever made. It has enormous reserves and the better the System gets, the Delos will go with it. Some "upgrade" to Kleos because they think, spending more money atomically will give better results. The typical audiophile mistake in analog. Delos is in a way a perfect balanced cartridge, through the whole Frequency area. But it NEEDS a good Hardware to shine.

Pani,

When discussing cartridges it's critical to know which tonearm will be used. No one can give reliable information about a cartridge without knowing that. It wouldn't hurt to mention the phono stage either.

Take those statements about how ZYX's don't rock with a grain of salt. Anyone who makes such simplistic claims without providing their system context lacks a certain breadth of experience. How well a Yatra or most other ZYX's rock depends to a great extent on the tonearm, particularly its effective mass. On an arm with an effective mass of 18g or a little above, a Yatra will rock the house while also providing natural detail and tonality. On lighter arms the singing detail will still be there but you will indeed get less rockin'. My guess is that those who claim ZYX's don't rock have only used tonearms of 15g effective mass or below, perhaps much below. The devil is in the details.

The best ZYX for rock/pop is the 4D, which rocks as well as any cartridge I've heard, even on an 11g TriPlanar. That's a different design from the R100 series and well beyond your price point, but it heartily disproves any foolish notion that "ZYX's don't rock". Read our review of the 4D (Atmos) beneath my signature for a discussion of why/how some ZYX's rock better than others.

I defer to Syntax on the Delos, which I'm unfamiliar with. He seems to know what he's talking about there, as usual.

Hi Doug and Syntax,
My TT is a Nouvelle Platine Verdier, Tonearm is SME 3012 S2. While current phonostage is a Auditorium23 SUT + Leben RS-30EQ I am planning to change it to an RCM Sensor Prelude or 47 labs, still not decided. Naim Superline is also under consideration.

While the Platine is a very solid table it is actually a bit warm and relaxed sonically, at least that is what I feel with the SME and EMT tonearm I have heard them with. I need a cartridge which can liven up the sound in a natural way and do some nice rhythm and timing. Am I on the right path looking on the ZYX and Lyra ?

Dear Pani: I agree with Dougdeacon: tonearm is critical to judge any cartridge and not only about its effective mass but its kind of signature resonances/distortions and damping on it.

In the other side as Doug posted the phono stage is way important too, as better PS as better cartridge quality performance level. I prefer high gain active PS over SUTs but has the " disadvantage " that a a good active high gain PS are expensive.

I never heard a ZYX through a SME but I heard Lyras and I think works really fine with.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.