Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

American-born Jonathan Carr is a Japanophile – having lived in there for over thirty years he's a fluent Japanese speaker and very much a connoisseur of the country's culture. He is also a committed 'analogue audiophile', and this led him to create his own moving-coil cartridges. Based in central Tokyo, he partnered with Managing Director and CEO Stig Bjorge, the Norwegian-born former Japanese Ortofon distributor. Lyra first entered the cartridge market under the name of Scan-Tech in 1986, only to rebrand in 1991. Carr deliberately did not ape existing designs, choosing to go his own way. He initially intended to outsource manufacturing to Supex, but the company reportedly felt they were too difficult to implement. Carr duly took the manufacturing in-house, under the expertise of Japanese master craftsman Yoshinori Mishima. Jonathan Carr is in love with the country's artisan culture, and regards Mishima-san as a perfect example of this. Lyra's moving-coil cartridge debut was the Clavis, soon followed by the Clavis DC, Parnassus, Lydian, Argo, Dorian, Helikon, Titan, Olympos, Skala, Etna and Atlas.