LYRA Kleos Moving Coil Phono Cartridge

"Highly Recommended" - Michael Fremer, AnalogPlanet.com

The Kleos is the lowest cost Lyra cartridge to feature the full fledged Ogura manufactured boron cantilever and coil system with Lyra's original line-contact (3 x 70μm) stylus. This is similar to what is used on even the most expensive Lyra models.

Nevertheless, the most important element of the new Kleos is it's sound. Kleos is capable of extracting more information from the vinyl grooves than it's predecessors. Its reproduction of music is both more dynamic, more detailed, and more natural than the models preceding it. Kleos sets a new standard for sonic performance at it's price point.

"I think Kleos is one of designer Jonathan Carr’s best effort yet and at a 'reasonable' price point!" reports Michael Fremer in his AnalogPlanet.com review for April 10, 2014. "The Kleos was 'highly recommended, without reservation' back in 2010. That is still true four years later"

"After listening to the Lyra Kleos in my system for nearly two months, an improvement in sound is just about unimaginable. Bravo, Lyra!" notes Tom Lyle, EnjoyTheMusic.com, April 2011.

The Master Cartridge Builder

Today there are only a small handful of master cartridge builders in the world, and Lyra's Yoshinori Mishima belongs to this elite group of individuals that are capable of crafting the highest level MC transducers on the planet. His assistant Akiko Ishiyama, who has undergone several years of apprenticeship, is also involved in the building process leading to each Kleos. The Kleos is not only hand made, but each cartridge is listened to extensively and "voiced" by the master cartridge builder, like the finest musical instruments.

Lyra offers a unique combination of capable, advanced cartridge design by Jonathan Carr and complete handmade execution by the above mentioned individuals. Investing in a Lyra Kleos will offer you an unparalleled analog experience with your vinyl records.

Lyra's "New Angle" Technology

Although many MC cartridges have good performance, their sound is held back by how they are designed. The problem is that the signal coils should have the same angle as the magnetic circuit during playback, but MC cartridges are typically designed so that the opposite happens. Applying normal tracking force pushes the coils out of alignment. This impairs coil sensitivity and linearity, while reduces sound quality.

Lyra's "New Angle" technology solves this fundamental problem by compensating for how the signal coils are affected by vertical tracking forces, and optimally aligning the coils when it matters most - during playback. Introduced on Lyra's entry-level Delos, the New Angle technology enables the Delos to perform well above its price point.

But being audiophiles, Lyra's engineers wanted to achieve the next higher level - which is the new Kleos. Building on New Angle technology, the Kleos innovates with a stronger chassis machined from aircraft-grade alloys, narrowed mounting area to improve energy transfer, and pre-stressed construction combining multiple materials with non-parallel surfaces to inhibit internal body resonances.

The fully hand-made Kleos also has a Lyra-designed line contact stylus and platinum-plated output pins, achieving an exceptionally quiet noise-floor with superior immediacy, resolution and tracking, wide dynamic range and explosive transients, plus a warmer and natural tonal balance. The Kleos is a high-value cartridge that surpasses the sound quality of substantially more expensive cartridges.

• Moving Coil phono cartridge with "New Angle" technology
• Designer: Jonathan Carr
• Builder: Yoshinori Mishima (final build, testing), Akiko Ishiyama (preliminary build)
• Type: Medium weight, medium compliance, low-impedance moving coil cartridge
• Stylus: Lyra-designed long-footprint variable-radius line-contact nude diamond (3um x 70um), slot-mounted
• Cantilever system: Solid boron rod with short one-point wire suspension, directly mounted into cartridge body
• Coils: 2-layer deep, 6N high-purity copper, square-shaped chemically-purified high-purity iron former, 5.4ohm self-impedance, 9.0uH inductance
• Cartridge body: One-piece machining from solid 7075 alloy billet, with reduced-surface higher-pressure headshell contact area, partially non-parallel shaping, phase-interference resonance-controlling mechanism, and body threaded directly for mounting screws

• Output voltage: 0.5mV@5cm/sec., zero to peak, 45 degrees (CBS test record, other test records may alter results)
• Frequency range: 10Hz ~ 50kHz
• Channel separation: 35dB or better at 1kHz
• Compliance: Approx. 12x10-6cm/dyne at 100Hz
• Vertical tracking angle: 20 degrees Cartridge mounting screws: 2.6mm 0.45 pitch JIS standard
• Distance from mounting holes to stylus tip: 9.5mm
• Cartridge weight (without stylus cover): 8.8g
• Recommended tracking force: 1.65 ~ 1.75g (1.72g recommended)
• Recommended load directly into MC phono input: 95.3ohm ~ 816ohm (determine by listening, or follow detailed guidelines in user manual)
• Recommended load via step-up transformer: 5 ~ 15ohm (step-up transformer's output must be connected to 10kohm ~ 47kohm MM-level RIAA input, preferably via short, low-capacitance cable)
• Recommended tonearms: High-quality pivoted or linear tangential tonearms with rigid bearing(s), adjustable anti-skating force, preferably VTA

"Highly Recommended" - Michael Fremer, AnalogPlanet.com

"I think Kleos is one of designer Jonathan Carr’s best effort yet and at a 'reasonable' price point!"

"The Kleos was 'highly recommended, without reservation' back in 2010. That is still true four years later"

- Michael Fremer, AnalogPlanet.com, April 10, 2014

"After listening to the Lyra Kleos in my system for nearly two months, an improvement in sound is just about unimaginable. Bravo, Lyra!"

- Tom Lyle, EnjoyTheMusic.com, April 2011