I think the Lyra Delos or Kleos might be fine on a RB300. I don’t think I would invest in a Etna or Atlas without moving to a better arm first. Those cartridges deserve the best to bring out what they have to offer.
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some cartridges which can go well with the RB300:
- ortofon cadenza black
- benz mc glider
- van den hull mc one
As Josquin have observed, these cartridges , with Lyra Delos and Rega Apheta 3, are probably the limit for the RB300.
Maybe it’s a credit to how good my turntable is (it’s an Acoustic Signature in all but name) but when I went from an Ortofon Kontrapunkt B (only a step below the Cadenza Black equivalent) to my Ortofon A90 it was a colossal upgrade. Huge - no exaggeration which tells me that the RB300 can’t be that much of a bottleneck. It also convinced me that the bulk of the $$$ focus in a turntable set-up should be the cartridge provided that the turntable, arm and phonostage are of decent quality.
Would a better arm wring out more from my A90 or similar? I have no doubt but it at least lets it put in a good showing.
My issue with the RB300 is that there’s no VTA/Azimuth adjustment. It’s pretty minimal as Rega arms are known for that. If the Lyra is as fussy as some state then I worry that it would be wasted on my turntable.
Oh, and in case anyone asks, I’m using the original Rega Ios phonostage which is another over-achiever.
The RB300 is a remarkably good arm considering its modest cost, and it’s quite capable of handling a top flight MC, even if it may not wring every last drop from it. Structural modification and rewiring can give you a bit more, although you need to be careful. Many years ago I elected to have this done to my RB300 by a then fledgling tonearm maker. There was air bit of tooing and froing with the arm as it wasn’t initially without issues, however, I kind of accepted that I was a bit of guinea pig for some of the stuff being tried, and in the end it was a superb performer, albeit much fussier than before. Rewiring is no panacea wit this arm.
However, a better bet here might be to look for an RB2000 or RB3000 and lower your cartridge sight a bit to balance the budget. Either arm takes what’s basically great about the RB300 and makes it much greater - the nearest analogy I can think of is something like a standard production engine (RB300) vs. a similar engine that has been meticulously assembled - blueprinted - with everything carefully balanced and then polished, ported and tuned (RB2000/3000).
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what is your phono preamp?
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From what I have read on other forums Lyra is a good pairing with the Brinkmann 10.5 tonearm for me it’s how the synergy is with the built in phono in my amp.
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A RB3000 is something I would consider down the track although I’m not sure how easy it would be to install on my TT.
Anyhoo, the Delos is still on my shortlist although I’m open to other suggestions at a similar price.
If your deck’s armboard is drilled for an RB300 then it shouldn’t be too hard to drill the extra holes for the later 3 point mount.
I swapped an RB300 for an Origin Live Silver Mk2 years ago and I wouldn’t go back, the improvements were immediately obvious. In fact I wished I’d spent more to get the next model up!
It currently lives on my 301 sporting an AT33PTGii.
Rega Carts in that range all sound really good too, the current Apheta 3 is lovely…
It isn’t I have both and are mounted on my dais in different tonearms
Both sound superb 
That’s good to know, cheers.
I picked up Blue Room by Chet Baker yesterday as part of the RSD sales and listening to it on my vinyl rig it sounded…perfect. Honestly, amazing aside from a decent amount of static upon first play.
Which has me thinking: could it be the issues I attributed to a perceived end-of-life of the A90 stylus (some distortion on sibilants/high notes) be instead down to the quality of the record itself?
I don’t have a record cleaning machine so now I’m wondering if all I need is something like the HuminGuru rather than rebuilding my A90/getting a new cartridge?
Maybe there’s life in the old girl yet.
I can’t evaluate the condition of your sample, but I agree that the Ortofon A90 is a cartridge of epic proportions, a real game changer when released many years ago. Famously, Harry Pearson of TAS hated it, but then again he always ran his MC cartridges at 47K. Due to carelessness I managed to trash my cantilever early on, and therefore did pay for an official rebuild. In retrospect, worth every penny.
For a Brinkmann turntable and tonearm I would at leat try to audition a EMT cartridge. Until recently their own EMT/ti was the go to cartridge.
Regarding the Lyra Kleos, the SL does offer a finer sort of resolution compared to the non-SL.
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Could be, record condition and pressing quality certainly plays a part. But, when my last AT33PTGII was on the way out the gap between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ pressings started widening until I had to bite the bullet.
Out of interest, what did you replace your AT with? I still have mine, 6 Y/O now.
Another AT33PTGII, I had been very pleased with it and it got a lot of use over lockdown 
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Just to point that the OP cart costs 6 times the AT33 ….So very probably a big downgrade.
Not suggesting he should get one, just reporting the effect of stylus wear.
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