Does it get much better than the HD800? - Page 9

I did not like the Lyr paired with hd800, t1, or really any headphone other than thunderpants and lcd2.  I could never get the noise floor silent and it drove me nuts.  I recently sold my lyr for these reasons.

 

I felt the concerto handled my hd800 much better and did almost as good a job with the lcd2.  I'm a big fan of the concerto, seems to work well with every headphone I have ever thrown at it.  It must be the active balanced ground or something.

 

I have not heard the v200, but for the hd800 I'd prolly prefer it over the lyr based off what I've read about it.

Now thinking about it, I have read Schiit amps blowing up headphones before :|

 

Aptly named then? (sorry couldnt resist)

 

actually I see what you mean, quite a few threads on them on the net http://www.head-fi.org/t/602286/did-the-schiit-lyr-blow-out-my-headphone-driver

Edited by zardon - 5/13/12 at 9:59am

The Eddie Currents do.

Well, tbh they designed the Lyr assuming a more knowledgeable audience.  After someone mentioned the issue and even showed a video they fixed the circuit and retrofitted their whole lineup as well as previous owners.  Even though my Super7 handles warm up/delay just fine I know better than to leave me headphones plugged in during power off/on.  That's just headphones 101.  Volume fully attenuated, phones unplugged.  IMHO the holy crusade that followed the Lyr issue (that was fixed) was totally overblown by some w/ specific agendas.

 

Edit - Apparently, people are selling/buying older pre-retrofitted units.  

Edited by Anaxilus - 5/13/12 at 10:55am

I thought sticking things into an input while the amp is on would cause some problems as well.

 

Well, there's always one thing you can count on: the stupidity of human beings. 

 

In all seriousness, a design flaw is a design flaw and you really have to design for idiots, otherwise, you're just asking for a publicity nightmare. It happens all the time in the retail industry so best to make your product offerings as bulletproof and idiotproof as possible, irrespective of whether you assume your target market is knowledgeable or not. Schiit knows better now, but not without much of the heat that was piled onto their company and continues to impact them to some degree today.

Just to be clear, it was a deliberate design choice not a 'flaw'.  Jason said they did not want relays in the signal path affecting sound.  They wanted to maintain the simplicity of the signal path.  It wasn't an 'Oops, we forgot to put a relay in there!' moment.

With boutique audio equipment it is possible for it to be both. And however unfair it may be to engineers, it's always them that are wrong and not the end user, from the market and product safety point of view.

 Speaking of Schiit - quite keen to hear the new upcoming Mjolnir Crossfet design balanced only amplifier with the HD800 via dual XLR 3-pin cable.

 

 I like how Jason has embraced such a bold design to release a product that does not cost $$$$ - aimed at getting folk to just use a balanced

 setup - no unbalanced quarter inch here folks.

 

 In theory you'd expect a balanced only amp to cost upwards of $2000+ - it makes sense, thats where the flagship mongers live - but at $899

 Aussie landed - that's within the reach of most of us.

Very true.  Customer is always right, even when they step on the wrong pedal.

Ditto.  If you don't mind having multiple amps, the Lyr's worthwhile for its synergy with the LCD-2's, but it brings out absolutely nothing special about the HD800's.  As a person who owns all 4 items, I felt like I was in Bizzarro World when I read that 6moons article wherein he said that the Lyr had better synergy with the HD800's than the LCD-2's and that the Burson was better amp for the later.  That said, I don't personally know what a good amp would be for both the LCD-2's and the HD800's. Oddly enough, I like my Lehmann BCL with both the HD800's and the LCD-3's, though, but would cautiously turn the Lyr back on if I felt like using the 2's.

 

The Lyr upgrade tubes I ordered are in mail limbo somewhere, so I've only heard it with the stock configuration.

Edited by driver 8 - 5/13/12 at 2:59pm

I stand corrected. But I think that design choice is still impacting them negatively to this day. Still seeing forum posts on Schiit amps "blowing headphones up" as of today. 

 

I am, however, interested in their upcoming amp though and would love to be able to judge for myself how the Lyr works with the HD800s from all the feedback around. Just for the record, business decisions should not impact the product's ability to deliver musicality and if the Schiit line does, it's still worth investigating whether the product is right for folks' tastes or not.

Edited by twizzleraddict - 5/13/12 at 3:17pm

 

No doubt.  Schiit happens.  

Add the K701 the list of headphones that the Lyr brings the very best out of.