Schiit Lyr Shipping! Impressions?
May 15, 2012 at 2:22 PM Post #2,236 of 2,392
Quote:
 
I'm surprised he'd say that.  I don't have LCD-2, but with HD650, K702, HE-400 (also planar, and more efficient than LCD2, though I believe higher impedance), it's dead silent.  The only can that picks up noise (and a lot of it) is D5000, and that's all tube noise. 
 
Are you sure it may not be your SOURCE that's picking up the hum and Lyr is just magnifying it?  Did you try a different source, even an iPod on an LOD cable or something?


Are you sure it is dead silent? Put the headphone on before connect it to the lyr. Go to a dead silent room. Connect it to the lyr. Do you hear an difference? It is a very very quiet noise you only can hear when you apply on this.
 
May 15, 2012 at 2:56 PM Post #2,237 of 2,392
Quote:
Are you sure it is dead silent? Put the headphone on before connect it to the lyr. Go to a dead silent room. Connect it to the lyr. Do you hear an difference? It is a very very quiet noise you only can hear when you apply on this.

 
How dead silent must the room be for the test? :)  A single blower with its own hum in the background may not count as entirely silent.  But I'm very sensitive to any little noise coming out of the amp.  Particularly in higher frequencies though.  If there were something from the low frequencies that was so silent I wouldn't be able to hear it without modifying the environment I may not hear it.  
 
I hear nothing different on the Lyr with the HE-400, K702, and HD650 in terms of background noise than I do on an SS amp.  Occasionally I get a high pitched whine coming out of one tube or another and have resigned myself to the idea that the GE's just tend to do that now and again.  One time I blamed tubes and it was the source (apparently Squeezebox Touch is sensitive to if the power connector is slightly pulled out and starts emitting all sorts of noise into the signal ranging from whines to wifi RFI.)   On my old, bad, microphonic tubes, if I turned the volume to 11 o'clock or beyond I could hear a bit of a hum to the gain.  However, for no reason but an amazingly weak source signal or incredibly hard to drive headphones would the volume need to be elevated near there, and that was only with badly microphonic tubes.
 
What source are you using?  Did you try the lyr with no source or cable connected at all to rule out source issues? 
 
Either the hum you're talking about is source induced, or is so quiet that it's beyond even my annoyingly acute hearing, or you've got something on the power grid that's inducing it. Maybe it's coming from the Lyr, but that doesn't seem right unless it's a tube issue combined with a noisy power supply.
 
Believe me, I know how annoying pinning down tiny noises from the amp can be....I do it all the time when the whine introduces itself.  It keeps my eyes on the tube rolling thread :wink:
 
May 15, 2012 at 3:35 PM Post #2,238 of 2,392
It not depends on source. It is there with no source connected. But it is so quiet that It don't disturb me even. Today I'm with my wife in the living room and hear over my T1. I cannot hear any noise at lowest level. I think I have made myself crazy without a reason.
 
May 15, 2012 at 3:40 PM Post #2,239 of 2,392
Quote:
It not depends on source. It is there with no source connected. But it is so quiet that It don't disturb me even. Today I'm with my wife in the living room and hear over my T1. I cannot hear any noise at lowest level. I think I have made myself crazy without a reason.

 
I think you've got it now
wink.gif

 
May 15, 2012 at 6:45 PM Post #2,240 of 2,392
Quote:
 
Did you try using the amp on a single point? Try unplugging all appliances in your room, and try.
If still no solution, you might have to get an isolation transformer, otherwise unfortunately, you need to change your amp with some other model, maybe Asgard.

 THIS!
 
I've used a cheater plug for years on tube gear connected to a Tripp Lite LCD2400 power conditioner.
 
May 16, 2012 at 5:43 PM Post #2,241 of 2,392
The vibrating problem I had has been 80% solved by putting higher than the standard issue sorbothane feet on my lyr, but mainly by throwing away the mains cable that came with it and replacing it with a decent one.  The original cable had badly bent conductors inside, preventing it from accepting the three "prongs" in the socket on the back of the Lyr properly, hence why it fell out on two occasions.
 
There is no audible hum when I put my ear to the Lyr, it vibrates gently, which doesn't seem to much to worry about I think.
 
I can hear through my Audeze LCD-2, even when the Lyr volume is turned off an infrequent faint high pitched electrical noise.  I don't think this is an earthing issue as my source, a Rega Apollo cd player, has no earth pin in its socket in the rear (it looks like it has been like that from new) and they are both plugged into a mains conditioner.
 
I have not had a valve amp before, I guess what I am hearing could be a tube characteristic?
 
Apart from these minor issues, I am over the moon with the Lyr.  The fantastic build quality (ignoring the embarrassingly bad mains cable), the beautiful design, but most of all, to my ears, the beautiful sound quality.  I've never heard anything like it before combined with my LCD-2's and the Apollo.
 
May 20, 2012 at 2:50 PM Post #2,243 of 2,392
My Lyr is also dead silent.. only a pair of old Czechoslovakian JJs sometimes causes the tiniest noise detectable, otherwise dead silent.
 
Jason and Mike are doing a miracle with their gear.. it just CANNOT be that good. I am more than just pleased... Yet, I still havent heard the bunch with my own K701s, this is only going to happen in a month... soo excited bout this! 
k701smile.gif

 
May 21, 2012 at 11:46 AM Post #2,244 of 2,392
Quote:
I can hear through my Audeze LCD-2, even when the Lyr volume is turned off an infrequent faint high pitched electrical noise.  I don't think this is an earthing issue as my source, a Rega Apollo cd player, has no earth pin in its socket in the rear (it looks like it has been like that from new) and they are both plugged into a mains conditioner.
 
I have not had a valve amp before, I guess what I am hearing could be a tube characteristic?
 
Apart from these minor issues, I am over the moon with the Lyr.  The fantastic build quality (ignoring the embarrassingly bad mains cable), the beautiful design, but most of all, to my ears, the beautiful sound quality.  I've never heard anything like it before combined with my LCD-2's and the Apollo.

 
That is positively tube noise.  I call it "tube screeching" or "whining."   I assume you're using the GE tubes?   I have two Lyrs.  After I got rid of the nasty old Japanese tubes and got some US GEs in there, the microphonics are all but gone, however on the one pair, I get a lot of tube humming for the first 30 minutes or so it's plugged in.   On the other pair I had one REALLY whiny tube.  I swapped it out and things got better, but I still get a quasi-frequent short whine out of the replacement tube as well.  This seems to mostly dissipate after an hour of warmup or so.   After that I only ever hear it very faintly and only on VERY quiet passages like very dynamic classical in the quiet passages. 
 
Since I discovered long ago, especially for HD650 that the tube have a "magic warmup" of about 45-60 minutes where the sound just changes to be so much smoother and richer, I generally try to warm up for that long anyway just for the SQ advantage.  Getting rid of the whine (or mostly getting rid of it) is an essential side-effect of my warmup ritual.  If I don't have that long to warm it up, I might as well just use my SS amp anyway.
 
I can't stand that whine, but as long as warmup mostly eliminates it, it's not a big deal.  I'm sure tube rolling would find me a cleaner tube that won't do that, but as long as I know how to avoid it, it's not a huge worry.  If it acts up even after warmup, I'll have to do something about new tubes. 
 
May 30, 2012 at 9:51 PM Post #2,246 of 2,392
There's some new Schiit in the house!
Just picked up my gently used Lyr from the post office about an hour ago.  Set up everything, put the GE tubes in, fired it up and plugged in my HD650's.  It's dead quiet, nice black background. I was really expecting to be blown away. Reserving judgement for now as I'm underwhelmed at this point. It has more power/dynamics than my Matrix but I was expecting it to blow the headphone amp section of the Matrix Mini-i away.  Will let it run for another hour or so and give it another go.
 
Setup: MacMini running Decibel > Optical > Matrix-Mini-i in DAC mode > Signal Cable Silver Interconnects > Lyr > HD-650.
 
I do have three other sets of tubes that I can roll (Russian NOS 6H1n, Amperex A-Frame Holland & Lorenz Stuttgart Gray Shield 1960's) but want to give the stock setup some time.
 
May 31, 2012 at 8:25 PM Post #2,248 of 2,392
Let the Lyr run all night and day so there was some additional break in.. meh.. next..
Just dropped the Amperex Holland A-Frame in.. revved everything back up and am going out for a 2 hour ride.   BTW.. the Amperex is giving off a foul smell, can't really describe it and I assume that it's just new tube normal burn off.  Nothing seems to be overheating or smoking after 10 minutes and liking the sound better already but no 'Holy Schiit!' yet. Will see what it's like after my ride. 
 
 
~~ Next Day Update ~~
The house didn't burn down, no more foul smell, let the Amperex tubes run for about 12 hours and swapped out the Matrix Mini-i DAC with the PS Audio DLIII from my main A/V system. Holy Schiit! Nailed it! This combo is really sweet. I really can't afford to get a second DLIII but the BiFrost may do. Over to the BiFrost thread to see if there are amy comparisons between the DLIII and BiFrost.
 
Jun 1, 2012 at 1:11 AM Post #2,249 of 2,392
Jun 2, 2012 at 8:43 PM Post #2,250 of 2,392
http://i48.tinypic.com/2jakdpu.jpg This is a measurement of my Lyr with 6.1 Vrms output into my HE-5LE headphones (about 1 watt). It is an amazing performance, the best measured tube or hybrid head-amp I have every seen driving this much power. I am a bit speachless after taking this measurement.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top