DIMON HELL, that is a fantastic design!!  It is absolute poetry and the cord "tray" on the bottom of the stand literally had me in tears at its brilliance.    I sincerely think you have something there.  I do suggest you look into producing that before the Chinese pirates steal it! : ) Thanks...

Here's mine which is a work in progress, from a recycled Apple Cinema Display stand. I hated short headphone stands and this fits the bill great without spending $100 on a gourmet stand   .  

You are a ROCK STAR, sir!  I figured you had a background, and it shows. I eat this up too, and love reading about it better than "oh boy I got my confirmation number woohoo!" posts.   Use this time to listen to your ASGARD and MAGNI, because I have the feeling from your previous post that...

  As an engineer, I can appreciate this.  (Even had a friggin probe handy, with ambient temperature measurement.) No more posts with subjective adjectives describing the temperature!  (but I am sure people will ask anyways!)  Thanks for taking the time to put this beast to rest.

"Lyr Noir" I like that.. I really like that.  very sharp : ) I assumed that for the 300 ohm HD650, that the Valhalla would output more power and had a leg up as opposed to the Lyr.  The Lyr outputs 660mw @ 300 ohms and the Valhalla outputs 800mW @ 300 ohms.  But I was certain that the hybrid...

  What we gotta know is how the Black Lyr, Valhalla2 and Magni stack up! You're killin' us here!

BeatsWork & StanD   Gents, this is going to get very convoluted so I'll try to be simple as I may have phrased the questions unclearly earlier.   1.  I was not trying to accomplish anything, I was merely asking cspirou to clarify since this was posted "The preamp output should just be a...

  That is definitely the first time I've read that.  Don't get me wrong, I have a soft spot in my heart for the 598 as it my first foray into this mess, but after hearing the 600 and 650, I never picked the 598 up again.  However I do respect your honesty - a lot of people would have simply...

Holy cow.. didn't you have a Valhalla2 coming in also?  You are truly a scholar. When you are able do let us know the findings of your research. Just make sure not to daisy chain all your amps together, I don't want to read about you on the news!

  From your post I glean that the signal coming out of the headphone jack is identical to the preamp RCA outputs on the back.  Is that how I should understand it?  I was always under the impression that the preamp outs totally bypassed both "stages" as you describe or at the very least bypasses...

  Do consider what StanD (and everyone else) is suggesting, I agree with their comments and if you want a courteously objective answer in a subjective hobby his reply is hard to beat :)   If you want to make a hobby out of listening to 24/192 audio then you have to get the modi2, otherwise...

Oh, having gone through different other hobbies in the past, I most definitely agree on this one.  Rereading my initial post I can see how it gives off this vibe.  Definitely not condoning buying black hardware solely as an investment.  More of like - if you want to get the hardware anyways and...

Not exactly what I had in mind but I do agree with the sentiment! :)

Thanks for the heads up on the B stocks. As with most things, given a little time it should appreciate in value.

  I would tend to agree with what was posted.  If you can't tell or don't care enough to tell (which is how I roll on most days too) you're prolly better off with the gen 1s.  The gain switch & the pre amp outs of the uber version for speakers are nice to have but not immediately useful for you...