Delos Moving Coil Cartridge
The Delos is the entry point of the Lyra range of high-end moving coil cartridges. A marvel of a cartridge at its price point.
1 Year |
Description
An analogue LP played back with an MC cartridge can sound exceptionally good. Normally, the more cost put into the cartridge, the better the sound. However, sometimes what is required is not more cost but more clever engineering, as with the Lyra Delos.
A major problem with most cartridges is that the signal coils are located so that applying normal tracking force restricts performance. The reason is that the cartridge’s signal coils should have the same angle as the magnetic circuit when the tracking force for playback is applied, but are nearly always designed so that applying normal tracking force pushes the signal coils out of alignment with the magnetic circuit. This impairs the sensitivity and linearity of the coils, and reduces the quality of sound.
The Delos solves this problem with a new body structure and pre-angled damping system. The pre-angled dampers work together with the angle of the body structure so that, when tracking force is applied, the signal coils are optimally aligned with the magnet circuit. The Delos also has a microridge stylus for outstanding tracking, a non-parallel solid metal body for low resonances, and nude construction for greater clarity. The result is clearly improved sound quality, particularly resolution, dynamic range, transient impact and immediacy.
Product Specifications
Designer
Jonathan Carr
Builder
Yoshinori Mishima (final build, testing), Akiko Ishiyama (primary build)
Type
Medium weight, medium compliance, low-impedance moving coil cartridge
Stylus
Namiki microridge line-contact nude diamond stylus (2.5um x 75um), surface-mounted
Cantilever system
Solid boron rod with short one-point wire suspension, directly mounted into cartridge body
Body
Anodised aluminium
Coils
3-layer deep, 6N high-purity copper, square-shaped permalloy former, 6.3ohm self-impedance, 9.5uH inductance
Output voltage
0.6mV@5cm/sec., zero to peak, 45 degrees (CBS test record, other test records may alter results)
Frequency range
10Hz ~ 50kHz
Channel separation
Greater than 30dB at 1kHz
Compliance
Approx. 12 x 10cm/dyne at 100Hz
Cartridge mounting screws
2.6mm 0.45 pitch JIS standard
Distance from mounting holes to stylus tip
9.5mm
Cartridge weight (without stylus cover)
7.3g
Tracking force
1.65g – 1.75g (1.72g recommended)
Recommended load directly into MC phono input
97.6ohm ~ 806ohm (detailed guidelines in instruction manual, finalize by listening)
Recommended load via step-up transformer
Use a step-up transformer designed for 5 – 10 ohms cartridge impedance (step-up transformer’s output must be connected to 10kohm ~ 47kohm MM-level RIAA input, preferably via short, low-capacitance cable
Recommended tonearms
Medium to Medium-High mass arms recommended, which is bulk of tonearm market