Just got my Lyr. So far I'm blown away by the power this monster has! Straight off, I noticed increase in bass extension and quantity. Yes even on the K701s! It is a warm sounding amp; soundstage is wider than my STX and instrument separation is better, not night and day but it's definitely...

You should check out the Schiit Lyr. 6moons reviewed it and said it matched extremely well with the K701. I'll be getting my Schiit Lyr in a day or two. I will post my impressions here about the combo.   From my experience, the AKGs tend to distort at high volume. This is from the...

I will be receiving the Lyr soon. I bought it for the AKG K701s. I'll post my impressions here about the combo. The AKGs need a good amp to come alive else all you get is distortion at high volume. Quote:  

Quote: Thanks leesure! I noticed you have the bifrost in your inventory. How is it? Is it worth the money? I am using the STX as the DAC right now and imho, i couldn't distinguish the STX and the Cambridge audio dacmagic in terms of SQ.

My Lyr is on it's way! Can't wait! I have a question about setup.   I have a NAD C165 preamp and right now my setup is STX->RCA->NAD   If I set up the Lyr:  STX->RCA->NAD->pre-out->Lyr, will it affect the sound quality?   The NAD's pre out is 75 ohms. The other option is having a...

Quote: I've already swapped the stock op-amps with LME49720. I doubt it's a faulty board or setup issue. I know it's lack of power or something since, for me to hear the distortion while using the headphone out on the NAD, I have to go noticeably louder than the STX.   2 o'clock on...

Quote: As DarknightDK said, both are important but I think you would hear a noticeable difference if you get yourself a decent headphone amp. Just know that "more expensive" doesn't necessarily mean better sound quality. I had a Woo audio 6 w/ the sophia princess tube and I couldn't notice...

Quote: Ooo, which burson did you buy? HA-160? I'm thinking of getting that. I've read marvellous things about it's lower end authority and how well it handles dynamic attack oriented music. I just wish I could demo them before spending all that money.  

Quote: Hmm. Thats weird. I only have interference from the RCA outs. the headphone out is perfect.   Quote:   I have tried with many well recorded songs. Patricia barber, Rebecca pidegeon, Chuck Mangione. It's just a lot easier to pick up with fast music. Are the AKG's...

  Quote: Directly connected to the STX, foobar internal volume is maxed out. But at that volume it distorts, so I lower it to around -6db.  Sample rate is 192Khz OS: win7 x64 I don't use any modes. ASIO disables the entire xonar audio centre except for the Main tab. Anyways, I...

Quote: No it's definitely not ASIO. I'm getting exactly what you're saying. When i scroll a browser, moving the mouse, opening windows etc. I only notice this interference when using the RCA outs so it's definitely that.   The distortion is present on both, the STX and the preamp...

Also, the distortion is only with the AKGs. They drive the denons extremely well. Don't get me wrong, the STX is an amazing headphone amp for the money, but I'm afraid it's not pairing well with the AKGs.

Extra high gain (+18db) with -3db in Foobar. How do you set the volume to 40% ? When using ASIO, the Xonar master volume control is bypassed. I only use the software to change b/w speakers and headphone output.   I mentioned 2 o'clock because I usually listen to the headphone out on my NAD...

I emailed Schiit about the output impedance. I checked ASUS' website for the output voltage. It doesn't mention anything about 20V p-p. So I assumed that 5.65V is their output power. I'm sorry if I'm mistaken but I can't seem to find any article saying it's 20Vp-p. I can't really compare the...

Quote: Thanks :) Good to hear from someone who owns both. Do you hear interference? No music, volume turned all the way up? Also, which headphones are you driving with the Asgard? 

Yes I do hear interference. I just tested it through my speakers (monitor audio RX6) and it's noticeable. I had the woo audio 6 and i remember hearing it through that as well when I turned up the volume.   I thought the Asgard has better specs than the STX   Output impedance 0.5 ohms vs...

I'm planning on buying the Asgard for my AKG K701, Denon D2000 and Grado SR225i. I'd like to know how the Asgard compares to the STX. Should I use the DAC on the STX? Or should I buy the bifrost as well? I'm concerned about interference (noise when you move the mouse or disk activity noise)...

Hmm, interesting... The matrix M stage has a 5 ohm output impedance and I've read amazing stories about how it matches well with the K701's. Any owners out there have direct comparisons to the STX?     

I've searched a lot about this topic and i'm getting mixed results. Let me describe my experience so far:   I currently own a pair of Denon D2000's, AKG K701 and Grado SR225is. My current setup involves the STX line out to my NAD C165 pre amp and I use the headphone out on the NAD to power...

I had a WA6. It sounded identical to my STX headphone out with HD650 and D2000. I ended up selling the WA and buying a NAD C355 integrated amp. Can someone please tell me if they noticed night/day difference b/w the WA and STX? I felt sad to let the WA go

I agree with PointyFox... I bought the woo audio 6 recently and was shocked to find that the sound from my STX was identical to the WA6 (with my hd650s and D2000s). The D2000s actually sounded better with the STX at higher volumes. I even compared it to my sansui amp's headphone out. The sansui...

If I were to connect the RCA outputs on the STX to my Woo audio 6 RCA inputs; Is that going to increase the amount of distortion? I tried this and I noticed that the SQ coming from the WA6 is identical to my STX. Moreover, the bass gets distorted when I increase the volume on the WA to 90-100%...

I demoed a few Paradigms yesterday. They were amazing. So clear and detailed. I might end up buying a pair from their studio series. How is B&W (CM5) compared to paradigm? They (CM5) are going for $1699.99 CAD. Are they worth it? I couldn't find any reviews on them. Also, I've increased my...

Quote: ...a different dac may be something to consider. Yes I will be buying a DAC for sure. Quote: Or bi-pass the integrated amp altogether and go straight to active speakers. Wouldn't the quality be inferior to that of an integrated amp? Does anyone have/had...

Quote: It seems pretty common for high-end stereo amps not to include a DAC. It gives you the opportunity to pick the DAC that sounds best to you. I don't think a single one of the integrated amps that I demoed had one built in. Makes sense. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think I'll be...