What's Spinning Tonight?
- Thread starter MylesBAstor
- Start date
My personal favoriites clavis dc & helikon sl for me the most musical lyra carts. In drawer skala & titan i. A dream olympos sl to expensive.
I’ve had all recent Lyra’s but Etna at my place. I have a split mind on how I feel about the Lyra’s. But they sure are a work of art.
I've found the Etna to be only marginally better than the Kleos, which is about half the price of the Etna. The Atlas was about 30-35% improvement in overall sound but at more than twice the price as the Kleos.
Turns out that the new to me Linn dealership in Dallas regularly stocks the Kleos & the Atlas Lyra pick-ups but has to order the Etna and Delos. They offer other brands too but just thought I'd say something about the Lyra pick-ups.
Turns out that the new to me Linn dealership in Dallas regularly stocks the Kleos & the Atlas Lyra pick-ups but has to order the Etna and Delos. They offer other brands too but just thought I'd say something about the Lyra pick-ups.
After the Linn Krystal Kantilever Fiasko, I was fed up with Linn’s poor support in the US, and I bought the Delos, put it on my top spec LP12, and loved it. So I bought the Kleos within less than a year and thought it was seriously more refined. Curious about the next level I bought an Etna six months later and was really impressed with its smoothness and superb musicality. Later, my favorite UK dealer confirmed that they had taken on Lyra. Their opinion at the time was that the Etna SL beat the Atlas. Of course everyone, including me, consider the Kleos to be one of the best performance to price ratios in the industry.
In any event, I sold the Delos, put the Kleos on my older LP12, and enjoyed the Etna on my newest LP12. In direct comparisons over many albums and over several years, the Etna and Kleos were both enjoyable, but to my ears, the Etna was well worth the extra cost.
I liked my Etna better than anything else I’d heard. After several years of use and after high power stereo microscope inspections that showed my stylus to be in continued good condition, the Etna Lambda came out.
I had no incentive to replace the Etna, but reports from many critically listening friends motivated me to take advantage of Lyra’s generous trade in policy. They gave me 50% of retail on the Etna as a credit toward a new Etna Lambda. I did that trade one year ago.
I am still blown away every time I cue up the Etna Lambda. I think @Lee has used one quite a bit and has a good opinion of his too.
Don’t discount the Etna without an audition of one that’s properly mounted and broken in. If your arm is a good match (I’m using an Ekos SE long headshell version and loading my ARC Ref Phono 3SE at 500 ohms), you might be as delighted as I have been.
In any event, I sold the Delos, put the Kleos on my older LP12, and enjoyed the Etna on my newest LP12. In direct comparisons over many albums and over several years, the Etna and Kleos were both enjoyable, but to my ears, the Etna was well worth the extra cost.
I liked my Etna better than anything else I’d heard. After several years of use and after high power stereo microscope inspections that showed my stylus to be in continued good condition, the Etna Lambda came out.
I had no incentive to replace the Etna, but reports from many critically listening friends motivated me to take advantage of Lyra’s generous trade in policy. They gave me 50% of retail on the Etna as a credit toward a new Etna Lambda. I did that trade one year ago.
I am still blown away every time I cue up the Etna Lambda. I think @Lee has used one quite a bit and has a good opinion of his too.
Don’t discount the Etna without an audition of one that’s properly mounted and broken in. If your arm is a good match (I’m using an Ekos SE long headshell version and loading my ARC Ref Phono 3SE at 500 ohms), you might be as delighted as I have been.
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Good review. I suspect that the Etna that I heard probably wasn't broken in well enough based on what others have said. The Etna is like a super Kleos only more refined. I know for certain that the Atlas that I heard in Switzerland only had about 30 hours on it, not sure about the Etna at the time.
TAS liked it too … here is Alan Taffel’s review.
www.theabsolutesound.com
Lyra Etna Lambda Phono Cartridge - The Absolute Sound
Lyra Etna Lambda Phono Cartridge - What’s in a name? Plenty, if that name includes the “Lambda” suffix. Alan Taffel reports on the new Lyra Etna.
www.theabsolutesound.com
I streamed the hi res version from Qobuz earlier today. The vinyl vs streaming is really noticeable. The vinyl is more lifelike. I’m playing it on the Clearaudio rig.
Picked up a lot of great vinyl this Memorial Day weekend in San Francisco, including this Bessie Smith gem. The best Bessie Smith story I know is when she walks into a Cadillac dealership and the salesman tells her she can’t afford to buy a car there. Next day she comes in with a wad of cash and walks away with one of their pricey cars.
Another rarity I picked up on my vinyl trip to SF this weekend: Jimmy Giuffre playing with the Modern Jazz Quartet. Sounds lovely in mono, even if the vinyl is a tad noisy. Mono vinyl is generally impervious to surface noise unlike stereo vinyl. But the sonics are lovely regardless.
What I love about collecting old vinyl on mono is the wonderful liner notes written by knowledgeable critics,, not the ChatGPT junk that is passes for journalism these days.This last recording was done in 1956 in Lennox, Massachusetts, just a stone’s throw from where the Boston Symphony has its summer concerts. It was done in an establishment called the Music Inn whose proprietors Philip and Stephanie Barber organized jazz retreats where famous jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus came to discuss the intricacies of composition. One reads the liner notes on these old recordings and gets a musical education.
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Another great find: Django Reinhardt with Stephane Grappelli with the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Recorded in 1933 in Hotel Claridge in Paris. Sounds marvelous reissued on 180 gram vinyl. Gorgeous mono sound.
Seems like you had quite a trip to San Francisco. Love the stories you shared, thank you.
/ Jk
Before Covid we had a biannual celebration of guitar players here in Nashville. It was part of the Chet Atkins Appreciation and it attracted many guitar players from all over the world.
There were seminars, workshops, shows, picking sessions, and the normal hookups that go with any conventions.
One interesting tidbit that I remember from one presentation was the idea that Django added the third guitar player (in addition to his brother Nin Nin) so that he could have the two rhythm guitars backing his solos … as his rival Stephane had under the quartet model.
I just checked and the conventions are on again. July this year in fact.
Chet Atkins Appreciation Society
Welcome to Chetsociety.com, official website of the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS). Our mission is to celebrate the musical legacy of Chet Atkins and to preserve its history.
www.chetsociety.com
Of the more or less famous guys, John Jorgensen mimics Django’s actual playing style better than anyone else. But if you’re not watching the fingering, there are a lot of guys who can play in the style of Django’s sound.
An interesting point about Django Reinhardt from the liner notes. He came from a gypsy family in Eastern Europe, and mostly lived in a caravan during his youth, even after the family moved to France. An accident with a fire caused him to lose the ability to use two of his fingers of his left hand. He had to learn to cope with that disability, and his unique style of guitar playing probably reflects that loss.
John Jorgensen played Django in a movie and he learned to play in that style. Most others who would mimic Django play with a full complement of fretting fingers.
It wasn’t really just an accident with fire. Django literally lived in a Gypsy wagon, and as part of a group that travelled as a literal caravan. His trailer caught fire at an encampment and his hand was badly burned. He fought through it and relearned to play.
When the Nazis invaded France, the Hot Club broke up and Django and Stephane went separate ways. Django eventually came to the US. There are a lot of great stories about his adventures.
Another guy who relearned to play after an accident was Les Paul. Early in his career he broke his arm in a car accident. The doctor told him he would not have full mobility of that arm. Les told him the angle that he wanted it set for healing. Obviously it was a good choice. He played right up until his death at a ripe old age.
Django died at a young age. I think he was around 50 and he had a heart attack while back in Gypsy life after the war.
There are groups that reproduce and embellish the Hot Club Style. One of the better ones is led by Pat Bergeson… Pat is a very talented sessions player who was a protégés of Chet Atkins. He ended up with Chet’s famous Super 4000 Gibson archtop.
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Annie Sellick was married to Pat (after his first marriage to Allison Krauss). She is the vocalist for the Hot Club of Nashville. I see that the leader is actually Richard Smith. Pat is part of the group. Richard is an incredibly gifted guitar player, and another of Chet’s close associates.
In the video of “Sugar,” Pat is the guy strumming on the left.
In the video of “Sugar,” Pat is the guy strumming on the left.
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