Moving coil with a bit less leading edge

Pani yes it is possible, try a good tube phono stage.

Dover, I have tried 4 phonostages and 4 cartridges in my system:

1. Leben RS30-EQ
2. Naim Stageline
3. Naim Superline
4. RCM Sensor Prelude

1. Denon 103pro
2. ZYX RS30
3. Empire EDR9
4. Lyra Delos

All within the last 3 months. Though not all at a time but still lot of overlaps. At present I have the Naim Superline and RCM stages along with ZYX, Empire and Lyra cartridges. I am really confident that the phonostages I have tried till date are superb when it comes to tone, timbre and naturalness. One can actually believe they all have tubes inside (though Leben is really tubed). The fact that Lyra has a particularly (abnormally) sizzling lacking body treble (most obvious in sounds of Cymbals) is very apparent. I have not heard anything like that in other cartridges. I have heard my RCM phonostage with ZYX 4D and R100 as well, absolutely no such problem.

This is a common problem since most high end modern moving coils seem voiced to make vinyl sound like CD. Two suggestions in addition to the excellent & affordable Zu103 already mentioned: 47 Labs MC Bee and at much more cash, the Koetsu Vermillion.

Phil

The fact that Lyra has a particularly (abnormally) sizzling
lacking body treble (most obvious in sounds of Cymbals) is very apparent. I
have not heard anything like that in other cartridges.

The Lyra carts are designed to move all their energy from tracking into their
body and from that one into the Headshell from the Arm. When a Arm is used
which is simply inferior (and there are more of them out there than most will
believe) in that energy transfer - or has weak bearings - you get a lot of high
frequency problems while listening. It is not the cartridge, it is the Arm (+
Turntable, depending how the Arm mount was designed).
Zyx carts for example are exactly the opposite. They run well in ANY Arm, they
move no, or nearly no energy into the Arm. They make life much easier.
Lyra carts can show huge differences in Performance (Titan i is very famous for
that) , they CAN show, how good your System really is. Maybe there is one or
the other exception, but the Delos is not among them.
Arms are a special chapter, everyone thinks, when such a unit is ready to buy, it
is perfect and will solve all problems. Did you never ask yourself why some of
the most weak designs - technically - use wood? :-)

Jeff, I briefly owned a Airy 3, but most of my ZYX experience is with a silver coil UNIverse and a copper coil 4D. The copper 4D had great bass, it reminded me quite a bit like the Dynavector XV-1s that I had. The silver coiled UNIverse was not as dynamic and powerful in the bass as the 4D or XV-1s. I'm not trying to push a ZYX on you, I just had mentioned a silver ZYX as an option with my other previous recommendations. I also thought when you complained about the high's on a ZYX Airy 3, that you need to understand the differences withing the ZYX line.

I think that you have to realize that if you are looking for that smoother leading edge with more decay, that does mean you will also get a softer, slower bass performance. You cannot have the dynamic impact of the Dynavector XV-1s or ZYX 4D coupled with a smoother leading edge in the high's. No one cartridge does it all, softer high's come with softer low's.

Another smoother cartridge that I've owned, which sounded similar to a Benz Ruby to me was the Cardas Myrtlewood. I see a few recos for the Zu Denon 103, which I have not heard, but maybe I should. LOL.

Syntax, I assume the wooden arm wands are used to handle resonances. Am I missing something? Thanks for the description of the Lyra vs. the ZYX cartridges. I had not realized they were designed to deal with the energy in completely different ways. Would you care to comment on how an SME arm mates with a Lyra cartridge?