The Titan's body is machine from a single piece of titanium alloy to minimize standing waves, internal reflections , and resonances. Two symmetrical disc magnets create a symmetrical magnetic field that is said to eliminate distortions common to convention pole-piece designs. MF: "The Titan is the lease mechanically sounding Lyra I've heard, and one of the most lyrical and liquid-sounding cartridges I've heard from anyone at any price. And it delivered that musical ease without sounding dull or closed-in…. [Its] dynamics, sound-staging ,depth, detail resolution, bass definition, and all other parameters of cartridge performance were the state of the art or close enough… The Lyra Titan seemed to sail thorough the grooves, ignoring or minimizing wear, scratches , and other defects, while retrieving and delivering a level of musical nuance that set it apart from any other cartridge I've ever heard."
LYRA's flagship model , the Titan i represents the culmination of Jonathan Carr’s fourth generation designs. 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.
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.
Cantilever system: Diamond-coated solid boron rod with short one-point wire suspension, directly mounted into cartridge body via high-pressure knife-edge system
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