I've owned the Clearaudio Maestro and Virtuoso, the Ortofon 2M Black, the Soundsmith Zephyr, and most recently the Lyra Delos and Kleos. More detailed reactions are posted here and there in various Forum posts.
The primary reason for me jumping around with the Clearaudio and Ortofon cartridges is because of equipment compatibility issues. I just couldn't get those carts to settle down when mounted on my VPI JMW uni-pivit arm.
The Zephyr is an ok cartdige at its price point and works very well with my VPI arm. I'm holding on to my Zephyr as a backup cartridge.
But the Lyra cartdiges are a whole "nuther" ball game. I tried the Delos and fell in love with it. It mated very well with my VPI arm and it really produced beatiful music. I loved it so much that I jumped to the Kleos. As good as the Delos is, ... and it's very good, the Kleos is even better.
The reason for the long story is to echo Kiko's and DHcod's favorable comments. I think both Lyra cartrdiges are very strong performers at their price points.
Of course I end with the usual caveats. I am reporting on my exeriences and sharing my subjective opinions. Also, one should be mindful that the output voltages of the Lyra cartridges are low'ish: .5 mV in the case of the Kleos; a little higher on the Delos. Also both Lyra are low/medium compliance rated. Tonearm compatibility is important.
