Rega RP10 VTA shims

As a follow up, first off, a sincere expression of gratitude to Mr.Carr for his advice. I received and installed my 3.5mm shims and readjusted everthing accordingly last night. I was a little hard to get out of bed this morning as I couldn't stop listening last night.
This brought everything into focus, the bass is deep and controlled, the mids and highs have a very natural presentation. The sound stage opened up and lifted off the floor. I could go on and on, but the jest of this is, if you own a RP8 or RP10 and a Lyra Kleos, get the Acoustic Signature shims referenced above or have a custom 3.4MM shim made. I just wanted share my success story. By the way after years with an LP12 that was in perfect tune from the dealer, I am not looking back with any remorse. This RP10 equals and may exceed performance of that table. I am very happy and am picking up my new custom dustcover later today, as I am using this in the "skeletal" mode and have the plinth and dustcover packed away. Rega has realy outdone themselves.

Dear Theo: Lyra doesn't nominally provide a separate cleaning service, and heaven forbid were this the case! We are heavily backlogged in our production, and the single person who builds all Lyra cartridges is the same one who takes care of all servicing issues, including inspection and cleaning. If we were to provide a standalone cleaning service, we'd be even farther behind in delivering cartridges than we already are.

Usually what happens is that we get a cartridge back because it doesn't track properly, doesn't sound right, is a low-rider, or whatever. We will look at the cartridge, test it, listen to it, and take care of whatever is wrong with the cartridge, and that automatically includes cleaning. Unless the user specifically requests us to do so, we prefer not to perform any more deep surgery than is necessary to bring the cartridge back to good health, since doing so would take more time (thereby eating into our limited production time), and cost the user money.

In your case, the best plan would be to keep listening to your Kleos, and looking at it periodically through the magnifying glass. If the cartridge starts to sound decidedly "off", or if looking through the magnifying glass makes it appear that the magnet area is encrusted in black pepper or rare spices (smile), then send us back the cartridge.

Lyra handles any and all service issues through the dealer that you originally bought the cartridge from (or the national distributor). It makes life much easier for us when we can deal with bulk returns of a dozen or 20 cartridges at a time, rather than needing to write paperwork or visit the shipping depot for each and every cartridge.

With our present backlog in production and servicing, frankly it could take 8-10 weeks before we can turn an order around.

Normally we take care of service cartridges in the chronological order that we receive them, but it always helps us if the owner can write a memo describing what he thinks is wrong with the cartridge, and sticks the memo to the cartridge box (so that we can read the memo without opening the contents).

BTW, I strongly recommend preventative maintenance. While it may not be advisable to attempt any action about the ferrous particle issue, the stylus should be cleaned frequently. I can hear the buildup on the stylus after one LP side, and therefore I normally clean the stylus after each side. If I am feeling lazy, I may only clean the stylus after one LP.

Preventative maintenance will definitely extend the useful playing life of the cartridge, which we certainly welcome (as it lessens our workload), and I am sure that you do, too (smile).

As an aside, do you feel that the material of the shim affects the sound above and beyond the revised VTA? I wouldn't be surprised if a duralumin shim, brass shim, stainless steel shim all affect the sound in somewhat different ways.

kind regards and hth, jonathan

Hello Jonathan,
I completely understand that the servicing could become a problem of attracting "cartridge hypochondriacs" (grin), and further your production backlog.
As far as the shims metallurgy contributing to the performance, I don't know. The Rega shims are stainless steel and the Acoustic Signature look to be but have a slight magnetic attraction. I am wondering if magnesium would be a good choice since the top brace is magnesium. I do think once I get a solid 3.4mm shim fabricated it will be better than the 2 shims I am using now. Plus the fact that they are in 4 pieces due to the design. Although it makes it quicker and easier to add and remove, I question just how solid of a foundation they provide. Any thoughts you could share would be welcome.
On the demag or degaussing concern, what is your thought on the method of shorting the leads by touching the RCA connectors? I would like your direction on this before I risk ruining a perfectly good cartridge.

Again my gratitude abounds for all your help. It has increased the value and pride of my Kleos ownership.
Best Regards
Theo

Of the cartridges are returned to us nominally because the owner feels that the stylus or suspension is worn or damaged, frequently the problem is stylus buildup that prevents the stylus from touching the LP groove properly...

Bingo! This mirrors my (much smaller) experience exactly. I've "saved" over a dozen supposedly worn out ZYX cartridges sent to me for a quick look just by cleaning the stylus properly. That's all they needed to sound as good as new. If you aren't cleaning your stylus after every side (Jcarr's recommendation to me, many years ago) you aren't hearing all it's capable of.

I have observed that the Rega Tonearm + Rega cartridge have a positive VTA (a pivot end raised slightly ) . So, we can not consider only the cartridge height to determine how many shims we should use to adjust the VTA in a Rega Turntable when using a cartridge from other brand. It will vary from cartridge to cartridge. Actually, the measure we should be worried about is the SRA. Much more important than the VTA which at the end is one of the ways we will utilize to try to achieve the optimum SRA adjustment.