[Derrick Swart]

Con: A lithium ion battery that's being held at full charge will start to bloat up on you and die within about half a year.

not if you set it to 85% (I keep mine always between 20 and 85% and once a month do a full charge, meaning going below 20% and charge in one go to 100%). I use my phones many years without issues.

 

[Zojokkeli]

Quick Mjolnir 3 update (get your dislikes handy): unfortunately, no 230V version is currently possible without changing the transformers to provide acceptable hum and vibration.

If there are more crazy people who want Mjolnir 3 than expected, however, I will keep the door open for a second run, where we can plan for 230V. Don't get too excited. We're in a "wait and see" mode on this for now.

On one hand, a bummer. On the other, you just saved me a tidy sum of money. Here’s hoping Mjolnir 3 will make a return in 230V at some point in the future. Meanwhile, Ragnarok OG will continue it’s service.

And here’s Elma and Elvi soaking in the disappointment.

 

[Paladin79]

This is true - which is why it is so much easier to use an iPad for bit perfect streaming. The iPad (or iPhone) automatically switches the output to match the format. AirPlay ignores all of this and should be avoided for best quality.

I often use an Ipad Pro in my shop for streaming and it certainly works well. As far as batteries on Iphones failing, I still have most every year I ever bought and they are all working without any battery change. I can only go back to 2008 or so.

 

[dstrimbu]

I can recall seeing James Gang in concert, their big hit was Walk Away. Joe Walsh did a long acoustic set.

I had the same experience at one of their concerts in NW Indiana (at the now-defunct Holiday Star Theatre in Merrillville); there were two stools on stage, one holding a glass of water. Joe walked out, waved and said "How ya doin'?", sat down and played (and sang) like a monster for 45 minutes. He was his own intro band... then the curtains opened and the whole band launched into Funk 49.

It was a long time ago, and I know that the potential for historical revisionism is high, but... as I remember it, it was a truly amazing evening.

 

[dstrimbu]

And an overly unsecure one at that, having no special characters.

Yeah, but a dictionary word search (at least on a von Neumann-architecture machine) would take a long, long time with that pw, so I would call it "marginally" secure.

 

[Paladin79]

Yep! Total Wine definitely gets our gin. It's my second favorite thing we make.

Total Wine

I will have to check the brick and mortar Total Wine & More. I can find your products in Indianapolis, and there is a closer location coming soon. My son is big into types of gin and bourbon and I am constantly looking for brands he cannot get. I do not see your products in his area of Virginia.

 

[Paladin79]

I had the same experience at one of their concerts in NW Indiana (at the now-defunct Holiday Star Theatre in Merrillville); there were two stools on stage, one holding a glass of water. Joe walked out, waved and said "How ya doin'?", sat down and played (and sang) like a monster for 45 minutes. He was his own intro band... then the curtains opened and the whole band launched into Funk 49.

It was a long time ago, and I know that the potential for historical revisionism is high, but... as I remember it, it was a truly amazing evening.

It was probably the same tour, I saw him locally and as best I can recall you are spot on.

 

[dstrimbu]

But I do know Auralic systems are Apple Airplay friendly.

Yes, I can confirm this with my (older) Aries G1 and version 9.2 release firmware.

 

[GearMe]

Don’t call it Frisco. Seriously, don’t.
San Francisco, San Fran, Hobo Toilet by The Bay, that’s all fine. But not Frisco.
Frisco is in Texas Colorado.

FTFY

 

[Ripper2860]

I think I may like Frisco, CO. better than Frisco, TX.

 

[dstrimbu]

You probably saw this coming… I bought the Tyrs.

I *definitely* saw it coming. Congratulations!

Actually the only real negative I can think of is that they don’t necessarily make everything 10 times more wonderful. These amps are not going to suddenly make a song rich and lush if the music doesn’t have the detail and dynamics to begin with.

Oh, brother - you can say that again. The better your system gets, the worse that poorly engineered/recorded/mastered music sounds.

Anyway this is my very long winded way (does this guy ever shut up???) of saying I am very happy with the Tyrs. Granted this is just a brief overview of my experience from less than one day of listening, but my overall reaction is; while I expected some improvement to the sound, I was still surprised at how much better my system sounds with the Tyrs.

Your verbosity is well-placed and much appreciated. It was wonderful to read your first impressions at this level of detail. Thank you, and I for one look forward to hearing more as your system evolves. Enjoy!

 

[dstrimbu]

My bad! It's Oregon Spirit Distillers Single Barrel Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon, bottled at 100 proof. I am Lead Blender at this distillery and we are a farm-to-glass distillery -- all Oregon-sourced grains and all of our whiskies are milled, mashed, fermented, double-distilled, matured, and bottled by us in Bend. Cheers!

You had me at "kettle corn" in the flavor notes. I'm in. <g>

 

[Paladin79]

You had me at "kettle corn" in the flavor notes. I'm in. <g>

From the research I have done, Total Wine price is about half of what that bourbon is selling for on other sites.

 

[fendermke]

You probably saw this coming… I bought the Tyrs.

The TL DR on the Tyrs is “Good amps.”

Yeah, I have no will power. I bought the Tyrs. I drove up to Newhall on Saturday and listened to several tracks that I knew well in the listening room. They had the Magnapans set up and I had to guess at what was the sound of the speakers vs. what was the sound of the amplifiers. It was kind of blind guessing since this was the first time I had listened to Magnapans and I hadn’t paid much attention to the Tyrs the last time I was there.

The main thing I was listening for was dynamics. I started with “Locomotive Breath” by Jethro Tull. I was primarily interested to hear how the opening transition sounds as it builds from the gently percussive sound of the piano to the driving guitar.

Then I queued up Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, 4th Movement. (Christopher Hoggwood and the Academy of Ancient Music) There are several sections that really work the dynamics of a speaker. There is a point where the choral section builds but then pauses as a set of sopranos take over the chorus. (Sorry, I don’t know music enough to properly describe this, but if you know the piece, you probably know the section I’m talking about.). The Tyrs handle explosive transitions from silence to suddenly loud sections very well. Apart from some surface noise, this track held up rather well.

Next was “3 Blind Mice” by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Art Blakey’s drumming is pretty intense, particularly at the end. The higher frequency percussion came in pretty hard on the Magnapans and I suspected it would not reproduce as sharply on my Polk RTi A9s. (This turned out to be true. Some of the sharpness is lost on the A9s, but they still perform really well.)

Kenny Burrell’s “Chitlins Con Carne” sounded good. Not much to say about it apart from that it sounded really nice.

“Down There By The Train” by Tom Waits is one of my favorite songs, but it’s a poor recording and every time I listen to it on a better system, it sounds worse. Same situation here. “Come On Up To The House” plays much better, but because the song doesn’t have much in the way of dynamics, it wasn’t an especially revealing track for this test.

There were a few other songs I listened to, but I ended with “Koyaniqatsi” by Phillip Glass. Again not much in the way of dynamics, but the low droning quality of the piece plays well and benefits from the strength of the amps.

So I bought the Tyrs.

I brought them home. Apart of lifting them, they were easy to set up. I just pulled the Vidars out and put the Tyrs in and I was up and running (after dusting off the shelves.)

So of course the proof was to be in how they sounded at home.

I listened to the first three tracks on “3 Blind Mice” by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Imaging is better than with the Vidars, although it will never be great with the A9 speakers. Dynamics are surprisingly good. I’m impressed with how much more I can hear within the music - there’s a piercing trumpet, but the spittle pops of the musician are clearly separate and distinct. And you can easily hear other musicians, off mic, talking somewhere off to the right.

Next was “Amazing Grace” by Aaron Neville from “Acadie” by Daniel Lanois. What I found really interesting here was there is a bed of fairly quiet instruments under Neville’s voice and when I have listened to this track before, it hasn’t really seemed clear or defined. With the Tyrs the instruments sound (I suppose the term is “forward”) but I would describe it as more present and detailed. It was as if a blurry image had come into focus. The separate instruments had their own space apart from each other, but coming together to create the bed of music.

Then there is the transition from Sting’s “I want my MTV” opening to Mark Knopfler’s guitar in “Money For Nothing”. That one actually gave me a shiver and an “oh wow!” reaction. I love the contrast from the quiet and languorous opening and the exciting distortion of the electric guitar. It’s a great transition on any system, but the Tyrs really emphasize it and make it much more visceral.

I guess this will all come down to the recording, but some tracks, like “Come Healing” by Leonard Cohen, as with “Amazing Grace” mentioned above, there were aspects that sounded present in a way I had never heard before… in this case it was the breathing of the women singing in the opening stanza - Of course it was always there, but with the Tyrs, each intake of breath was more forward and a distinct part of the sound. I like it as it gives more of a sense of the artists creating this music rather than just an instrument for creating tones. I guess in this case the Tyrs helped to emphasize the human quality of the music.

These amps definitely provide much better dynamics. I think it’s reasonable to say that if the dynamics are there in the recording, these amps can really bring it out. If they aren’t there, the results probably are not going to be that impressive.

One of the audio spirits I am chasing is better reproduction of piano notes. The first thing that made me feel like I was on the right path was getting the Bifrost 2/64 (Upgraded from a Modi) Suddenly I was getting something like the proper attack and decay on the notes that I remember from hearing a piano live on stage. It still didn’t sound real, but it was much, much closer. The dynamics on the Tyrs are another major step toward getting a recording to actually sound like the instrument in the room. I have been happy with what the Vidars did to “The Koln Concert” by Keith Jarrett but the Tyrs make the piano richer and more “there”.

The Tyrs can drive bass notes better than two Vidars in mono. Imaging is tighter although on my system, it’s still not sharply defined, as the Polk RTi A9s just aren’t going to image as well as a smaller speaker.

The amplifiers don’t get anywhere near as hot as I was expecting. My Vidars can get significantly warm. The heatsinks and chassis of the Tyrs are warmer than room temperature, but maybe only 10-15 degrees F over room temp.

While I do agree looking into different speakers is a good idea, I think the approach I want to take is to look for speakers that give me a different “voice” from the Polks. The nice thing about having the Tyrs is that I don’t feel like I have to limit myself to more efficient speakers. If I want to try Magnapans I won’t feel like my amps wouldn’t be able to handle them.

What the Tyrs give me is more contrast and richness in the music. They can go from very quiet to very loud without a struggle. I’m still a bit appalled at myself for spending so much money on a thing I didn’t really need, but I’m very happy with the results.

I can’t say I have any negatives to say about the amps. Yes, they are expensive, but as near as I can tell, they are pretty cheap for what you get. Yes, they are heavy, but they were not as difficult to maneuver into place as I had feared. They take up some space, but I knew that going in.

Actually the only real negative I can think of is that they don’t necessarily make everything 10 times more wonderful. These amps are not going to suddenly make a song rich and lush if the music doesn’t have the detail and dynamics to begin with. I have an Apple TV setup that I can run through the same audio system and the audio from the average YouTube channel is not made better by running through the Tyrs. (Note that the audio from the Apple TV is being fed to the TV via HDMI and from the TV to the Bifrost DAC via a toslink optical cable and that might affect the quality.)

That said, Postmodern Jukebox’s version of “Bad Romance” (Vocals: Ariana Savalas, Tap Dance: Sarah Reich) plays pretty well. I can still hear that the sound is very compressed - probably more noticeable on the Tyrs than on the Vidars - but the recording quality is good enough that I’ll overlook the mushy sound.

Anyway this is my very long winded way (does this guy ever shut up???) of saying I am very happy with the Tyrs. Granted this is just a brief overview of my experience from less than one day of listening, but my overall reaction is; while I expected some improvement to the sound, I was still surprised at how much better my system sounds with the Tyrs.

Mimics my impressions and the improvement they brought to my system. Nice also having amps that can drive almost any speaker effortlessly. My impression is that they are also my end game amps!

 

[Godaisan]

On one hand, a bummer. On the other, you just saved me a tidy sum of money. Here’s hoping Mjolnir 3 will make a return in 230V at some point in the future. Meanwhile, Ragnarok OG will continue it’s service.

And here’s Elma and Elvi soaking in the disappointment.

Ahhh sweethearts. I have an Elma too.