WE COME SPINNING OUT OF NOTHINGNESS, SCATTERING STARS LIKE DUST.
—RUMI
It has been more than a decade since 2012, when Lyra launched the original Atlas moving coil cartridge as the company’s flagship, but in the intervening years, there have been a few updates. First, in 2016, Lyra introduced what they call the SL versions of the Atlas and also the Etna. These cartridges were designed to take advantage of a new crop of transimpedance phono preamps like the CH Precision P1 and the Sutherland Phono Loco, which boast exceptionally low noise levels but work best with cartridges that have very low impedance. Cutting the number of turns on each of the cartridge’s two coils in half reduces the moving mass and inertia, allowing the stylus/cantilever assembly to respond more accurately to the tiny groove modulations. This results in improved tracking at the cost of a lower output level, which, thankfully, transimpedance phono preamps are well-equipped to handle.
Then in 2020, both Atlas and Etna versions were updated to new λ Lambda versions, with a redesigned suspension and damper system that Lyra says delivers enhancements in clarity and resolution. Visually, you can easily distinguish between the older and λ Lambda versions by color: Some parts of the structure went from bright emerald green to lurid purple.
When Shane Buettner of MIBS Distribution, Lyra’s new US importer, noticed I was using an original Atlas cartridge as one of my references, he offered to upgrade it to the latest version so that I could hear the differences. To avoid introducing too many variables, we agreed to stick with the standard, higher output version (not the SL), which has the added advantage of being a better match for a wider range of phono preamps. While the standard Atlas
