A bit off topic but do you know what did Lyra improve with Lambda version of Atlas or Etna?
I never had a non-Lambda so I can’t say for sure. I think the lyrananalog website has some information about it.
Steve, @110dB I’d suggest that the best way to do this is to get 500 lighter counterweights made. Send them to the dealers that supplied the Solstices to pass on to those who bought them. Make them free. If you seek demand, the number coming forward will be low, as many won’t be aware of the problem. Making 500 will cost little more than making say 50. Forget any fancy packing, just put them in Jiffy bags and send them out. If you set a change, say £100, you’ll end up with a pile of them sitting at the factory in 20 years time. That’s what I’d do anyway.
3 Likes
I’m afraid this is factually incorrect. The Troika had a 7.5mm stylus to mounting hole distance. The only present cartridges with that distance are the Linn MCs and the various DL-103 AFAIK.
1 Like
Thanks. I was misinformed all these years. 
2 Likes
Agree with Varyat - I can’t speak for ARO2 but having spent a lot of time and effort at one time using various Koetsus in the ARO 1 I recall longing for a middle counterweight - the heavy was too heavy for RSP and Urishi for example and the light was really far back on the stub with others so I remember preferring to add blue tac to the light when the heavyweight was too heavy! Also some of the stone bodies vary in weight depending on the cartridge vintage (Onyx for example). Ian’s and Steve’s posts explain everything. Maybe a set of 2 or 3 counterweights in a box would be a nice stocking stuffer for Solstice owners if the numbers (costs) work out for Naim to produce it.
2 Likes
I think that Solstice owners should be realistic, here. A reasonable argument can be made, in my view, for there to be a lighter counterweight, around the mass of the former Original ARO standard weight.
Hoping for 2 - or 3 - additional counterweights is - IMO - simply too much to ask of Naim.
YMMV, as always… 
3 Likes
IIRC, the Dynavector DV 17D also had a similar stylus to mounting hole distance (7.5mm) as the Troika.
Funnily enough it was a cartridge that really performed particularly well when mounted in an ARO…
2 Likes
Dealer hat on - we plead for two or three and hope to get one. 
I have used three different Dynavector cartridges with my ARO, and all have worked very well indeed - DV 17D, three XX2 MkIIs and I am currently on my second Te Kaitora Rua.
(Although some helpful person on this Forum claimed recently that the TKR did not fit the mounting holes on the ARO headshell!)
Thats Local Council thinking… IMO.
Better to ask for just 1 additional counterweight - and hope that Naim are gracious enough to make some of those. Which - based on @110dB 's experiments - should be around 110 g. And should give coverage for carts from around 8 g to 14 g.
(The existing standard ARO2 counterweight gives coverage from 11 to 17 g. )
Aiming slightly lower (on Counter Weight #2) might give coverage down to 5g (Hana) or 6 g (Rega), perhaps…
1 Like
Spot on Ian.
1 Like
Another idea - for those seeking perfektion… Might be an early Ittok style, 2 piece counterweight.
My 1982 Ittok has this, with a removable section to deal with lighter carts. However… it never been removed. I have used several DV10X, a Linn Asak and a Linn Asaka in it. Currently back to another 10X.
I suspect cost would work against this - and the perfektionists still wouldn’t be happy… 
I always thought that a counterweight with some threaded holes in the back was a good idea. Not sure if it’s ever been done. You could then screw in grub screws of various sizes to make up the weight. Maybe depleted uranium for the really heavy cartridges adding a nice nighttime glow 
As pointed out earlier, Clearaudio already provide a “set” of weights for (some of) their arms.
If all the logistics are in place, I’m not so sure that after a run of 500 of one size, a run of 500 at a different size would be all that time-consuming.
And there should be NO CHARGE . . . recompense for the fact that three years later I’ve still not received that “special edition LP” I was promised 
3 Likes
Not quite the same, but the Rega R200 has a threaded hole in the back of the stub which can be used to add extra weight. I use this to balance my DL-102 which is a particularly heavy cartridge.
1 Like
Same with the Technics 1200G. Comes with at least one extra counterweight to cope with different mass cartridges.
@Bart - Yes, my vinyl LP has yet to arrive as well. One could say that our Solstice sets are “Incomplete”.
I’ve not received my LP either after REPEATED communications with my dealer, importer, factory. Radio silence.
2 Likes