Lyra Kleos Mono MC Cartridge

This is a special, built-to-order, mono version of Kleos for real mono playback of monaural/monophonic (mono) microgroove, vinyl records. It is recommended that the Kleos Mono is used with high-gain, low noise phono stages, or alternatively a step-up transformer designed for phono cartridges of 2 - 3 ohms or less.
On mono records, the vertical axis of the groove contains no musical information, but it will frequently have noise, in the form of groove damage and dirt. The Kleos Mono has therefore been designed to be completely insensitive to the vertical axis, which greatly improves the signal/noise ratio without any downside on monaural records.
The coil former is a square permeable plate oriented parallel to the record surface rather than the 45-degree angle used for most stereo cartridges, while the coils are wound so that they only generate a signal when there is horizontal movement of the stylus and cantilever when tracking a record.
Two totally separate monaural coils are used in the Kleos Mono, since most monaural cartridges are used with stereo amplifiers and stereo speakers. The separate coils also help avoid possible ground loops and hum problems that could otherwise be caused if a single coil is fed into a stereo two-channel amplification system, thereby tying the two channels together electrically.
In addition to parallel mono connection to a stereo system (two amplifiers and two speakers), it is also possible to leave


SPECIFICATIONS FOR KLEOS MONO
• Designer: Jonathan Carr
• Builder: Yoshinori Mishima (final build, testing), Akiko Ishiyama (preliminary build)
• Type: Medium weight, medium compliance, low-impedance, low-output moving coil cartridge
• Stylus: Lyra-designed long-footprint variable-radius line-contact nude diamond (3um x 70um profile, block dimensions 0.08 x 0.12 x 0.5mm), slot-mounted
• Cantilever system: Solid boron rod with short one-point wire suspension, directly mounted into cartridge body
• Coils: Two individually isolated monophonic/monaural 6N high-purity copper coils wound in parallel (on top of each other) on a square-shaped chemically-purified high-purity iron former with 3.0 ohms self-impedance
• Output voltage: 0.25mV@5cm/sec., 2.4μH inductance
• Frequency range: 10Hz ~ 50kHz
• Compliance: Approx. 12x10-6cm/dyne at 100Hz
• Vertical tracking angle: 20 degrees
• Cartridge body: One-piece machining from solid 7075