Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: Lyra Titan i Phono Cartridge by Stitch

Model:	Titan i
Category:	Phono Cartridge
Suggested Retail Price:	$ 5500
Description:	MC
Manufacturer URL:	Lyra

Review by Stitch on May 24, 2013 at 05:01:06
IP Address: 87.170.119.25 Add Your Review
for the Titan i

Have you ever gone to a concert before the music starts and as you walk into the auditorium itself, notice the sound of the hall itself that is so "alive" that the ambience hits you in the face with its presence? It's all around you and has a specific feeling of "realness", of "being there". When the music starts, that characteristic becomes the context you hear the music in. It's the environment the music is in. Sometimes it is in a way recorded in the grooves and the Titan i allows you to hear it. A lot of carts have some unique abilities but the Titan i has something which is like a hit in the face in the very first second: It opens a room between the speakers in a way which is ver hard to describe, so deep, so wide, in a way, the listeners looks into the recording session (when you listen to older records which were done with a few microphones).

The Titan i has an uncanny ability to illuminate subtle dynamic information. Listening to Paul Paray conduct Chabrier’s, Espana (Mercury Living Presence, SR-90212), I was amazed at how much new information I heard in the opening section – instruments appearing with a clarity and placement that I have obviously been missing. The opening section is among the most amazing ones ever recorded, the image clarity, full-range harmonic expansion, and tonal purity are unique. Overall dynamics were unrestrained, easily reproducing the natural, and often elusive details of a live performance. I can confidently report that the turntable presents a fulfilled and vivid sonic image that sounds like music. A combination of balance, stability, and neutrality allows the music to flow with what you might call an effortless grace. This effortlessness, as if the harmonic and dynamic range have no boundaries, is one of the turntable’s most enchanting characteristics. The first qualities you notice are the extremely wide-reaching dynamics and dead silent background. But aside from its high resolution, the Titan i had among the fastest, cleanest transient response of any cartridge I've heard at any price. Metal sounds like metal, yet there was nothing intrinsically bright about the Titan's sound, which was full-bodied, deep, extremely well defined, and as fast on bottom as on top. The midrange was full but not excessively so, resulting in superbly coherent transient and harmonic performance from top to bottom. The Titan i had the slam and fullness preferred by moving-magnet devotees, but with the resolution and speed of a top moving-coil. The cartridge produces a stability of the instruments within the soundstage, as well as an independently stable soundstage itself. This affords the music the ability to exist even in a small listeners room.

The Titan i is a Titan with an improved suspension system that offers better balance between tracking performance and frequency control. A very expensive part of the Titan is the solid machined titanium body, the advantage of this design was better energy transfer from the cantilever to the body to the arm. Usually, vibrational energy reflects back down to the stylus tip. The result was said to be better pitch definition and purer-sounding transients. The design also allowed the body to be easily removed after the cartridge was installed, resulting in freedom from body-cavity–induced resonances. Lyra is different from most other brand, they try to do a more radical approach when it is time to make a new design (Lack of resonance in the cartridge body). But it is not a design for everyone. The energy transfer demands a Arm with that ability and top bearing. Resonance control, energy transfer and a top overall geometry is the key for such a superior sonic reproduction. Arms like SME 3012, Triplanar VII, Thales... are simply a disaster with that cartridge. I am also no friend from these overpriced wood Arms, they over-dampen everything and after a while it is quite boring with those. Never moved me sonically. Graham Phantom supreme is a good match but one of the very best is Fidelity Research FR-64s / 66s. When you don't use a proper Arm this cartridge will be heard to be in a state of almost constant instability.

Some lines to records:
Print-through starts self-erasing the tape signal from the high frequencies on down, so the high frequencies are the first to deteriorate, and will always suffer more than the midrange or bass frequencies. With reissues, in most cases the engineer will need to boost the highs to bring back something close to the original tonal balance, but boosting can compensate for a loss of signal amplitude but it cannot compensate for a loss of signal information. Some designers try to compensate it in their designs, sometimes successful, mostly not. they don't pass the test of time, they become boring after a while, their sonic fingerprint is audible in every reproduction. That coloration can disturb, the owners want to get rid of it and roll the investment dice again and again. That cartridge needs knowledge from the Listener, someone who wants a tool and knows what to do with it to get the best out of it.

The Divinity

On Joan Baez The first 10 Years, there was a sense of Joan standing in front of you in three dimensions—you can see her, and the outline of her guitar, and you felt as if you were listening from the other side of the microphone. The energy just kept coming, as it would if you heard Joan live. The boundary line between her head and the expanse of airy, empty stage behind her was revealed with uncanny precision. You could hear the very weak echo of her voice bouncing off the stage's side wall and you could feel the air circulating on the stage behind her.

Decca SXL 2136 La Boite a JouJoux Printemps
Not the typical sonic blockbuster but it is the type of subtle and delicate music that is perfect for a quiet night. The subtle details have their own, unique kind of magic. Ultra-Transparent. One of the great recordings.

London CS 6006 Espana
From the very first moment you can hear a Performance which is spectacular with the Titan i, with stunning mid and low bass. There is a clarity and impact which is outstanding. Imaging is unusually good, the soundstage is wide linked with appropriate depth.

London CS 6046 Nights in the Garden of Spain
The better the units are the more you can hear the subtle interplay between guitar and orchestra. The Solist is not wrapped into the orchestra, his playing has its own volume and strength.
Clarity, warmth, dynamics are keywords for these records

London CS 6205
short description: SOUNDSTAGE / AMBIENCE / PRESENCE

Lyrita SRCS 109 Arnold - English Dances
Very problematic record, with Phono- / Linestages which miss the sonic target by a mile it is simply awful, really horrible, when the System is really done right, it is a killer Performance. The first time when my cup of tea went cold while listening was with a Lamm chain (LL2.1, LP2, M1.2R) and the Cadence / Coherence II pass with flying colors...

RCA LSC 2400 - Ballet Music from the Opera
The Verdi selections continue with the Triumphal March, also from Aida. It receives a spectacular performance that almost convinces me of its musical worth. The antiphonal trumpets are recorded very well, especially their boulevard-wide vibrato. Its flavour is magnificent in its gaudiness and emphasizes the grand nature of the opera. The string tone is vibrant, the tactile sense of bow on string sounding rich and very sensual. Macro and micro dynamics are represented truthfully, with percussion instruments adding to the wonderful overall effect. Placement of instruments is pinpoint within the large soundstage, and unison woodwinds and upper strings are separated easily by space and timbre.

Mercury SR 90212 Chabrier Espana
That was the first session in their new recording hall in Detroit. The abilities from Paray shine here at his best. There is an „easy going“ through the complex Performance which is very hard to find. The first notes of Espana, the opening, is among the most impressive moments you can get from a record. When we talk about the Golden Era of Analog, that one is a part of it.

Happy Listening with a Cartridge which is among the best ones ever made. Only a few will ever hear what it is able to do.

Features:
Body machined from a single billet of Titanium alloy
Diamond coated Boron rod cantilever
Natural diamond, Ogura-manufactured, LYRA original line-contact stylus
Entirely hand-made and "voiced" by Yoshinori Mishima for consistency and performance
Two layer windings for energetic 0.5mV output

BODY
The entire main structure is machined from a single piece of Titanium alloy, which has been curved and shaped in a manner calculated to minimize any potential standing waves, internal reflections or resonances.

This microscopic attention to detail has been extended to the interior body structures, which are too intricate to be formed by mechanical means. A process known as electrical discharge machining is used, not only because of its ability to fashion complex shapes, but also because it is a non-contact process, and therefore does not create any mechanical stresses in the machined structure. The superior rigidity afforded by the Titan i's solid, intricate, low-resonance body construction helps create a clearly defined reference pivot for the cantilever, which improves the conversion accuracy of mechanical vibrations into electrical signals.

A rigid titanium body also creates an efficient path for the vibrations from the stylus to be channeled away from the critical signal generator area and into the tonearm, where this energy can be dissipated effectively. The particular titanium alloy used has been chosen specifically for its low-level of self-resonances and advantageous sonic properties.

The Titan i is fully nude design, with a body shape that has been designed to minimize cavity resonances, and also minimize the presence of conductive materials in the vicinity of the magnetic gap and signal generator coils. For similar reasons, the front magnet carrier of the Titan i is both non-magnetic and non-conductive. This non-conductive, nude construction prevents the formation of dynamically induced variable eddy currents that would otherwise interfere with the primary magnetic field and distort the signal generation process

GENERATOR SYSTEM
Two symmetrical disc magnets are used in a non-polepiece generator system, while the stylus rides at the tip of a low-mass diamond block measuring 0.08 x 0.12 x 0.5mm. The stylus itself is a LYRA-designed line-contact, with a major radius of 70 micrometers and a minor radius of 3 micrometers.

A compound structure cantilever has been designed to increase propagation velocity and self-dampening characteristics. Consisting of a solid boron core, an outer diamond layer, and an additional reinforcement metal jacket, the cantilever's combination of low mass, high stiffness and low internal resonances reduces overshoot and ringing, thereby helping to minimize the audibility of groove damage and improving the perceived signal-noise ratio, even on worn records. The signal coils are wound from high-purity 6N copper over a chemically-refined high-purity iron core, which has been gold-plated to reduce eddy currents and thereby minimize distortion. The impedance characteristics remain flat far beyond the audible range, and the use of high-purity materials reduces both measured and audible distortions.

An ultra-short suspension wire creates a precisely defined reference pivot for the cantilever, and plays an important role in improving the conversion accuracy of mechanical vibrations into electrical signals. The compound damper system utilizes completely new damper materials that provide superior tracking, detail retrieval and minimal ringing.

The cantilever assembly of the Titan i has been mounted directly to the titanium body. Intermediate mounting methods such as polepieces or subcarriers have been completely eliminated. Both the cantilever and the insides of the body have been shaped so that when the two components are joined to each other, a double-knife-edge system is created, which concentrates as much pressure as possible on the joint area and thereby achieves a type of cold weld. This direct mounting system minimizes the number of mechanical joints between the cantilever and tonearm, and maximizes mechanical energy transfer away from the stylus and generator area. The end result is far less reflected mechanical energy, and therefore significantly reduced levels of distortion and resonance.

Builder: Yoshinori Mishima / Designer: Jonathan Carr
Type: Low impedance, low output Moving Coil
Frequency range: 10Hz - 50kHz
Channel separation: 35dB or better at 1kHz
Cantilever system: Diamond-coated solid boron rod with LYRA original, natural diamond line-contact stylus (3 x 70 micrometers profile)
Internal impedance: 5.5ohms
Output voltage: 0.5mV (5.0cm/sec., zero to peak, 45 degrees)
Cartridge weight (without stylus cover): 10.5g
Compliance: Approx. 12 x 10-6 cm/dyne at 100Hz
Recommended tracking force: 1.65 - 1.75g
Recommended load: Direct into non-inverting RIAA phono input: 100ohms - 47kohms / MC step-up transformer: 4 - 10ohms (not more than 10ohms)

Product Weakness:	You need top analog equipment
Product Strengths:	Real Thing Reproduction

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Lamm ML2.1
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Lamm LP2s (70dB gain)
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Micro Seiki 5000 modified, FR-66s
Speakers: Reference 3A
Cables/Interconnects: Audioquest Sky
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Decca SXL / RCA Living Stereo
Room Comments/Treatments: Done
Time Period/Length of Audition: 18 months
Type of Audition/Review: Home Audition

Amplifier:	Lamm ML2.1
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Lamm LP2s (70dB gain)
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Micro Seiki 5000 modified, FR-66s
Speakers:	Reference 3A
Cables/Interconnects:	Audioquest Sky
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Decca SXL / RCA Living Stereo
Room Comments/Treatments:	Done
Time Period/Length of Audition:	18 months
Type of Audition/Review:	Home Audition