Wow, I feel honored! I just logged into Head-Fi and saw that I was featured "above the fold" so to speak with my impressions, so I re-read them and I have a few updates.
My wife did get an account, and she is now lurking as
@gingerFi which is a way better name than mine, and I may need to re-brand. She also put her impressions up in this thread a bit further up.
Also, as of this morning, she has upgraded her rig from an OG Schiit Hel, to a full on stack of Schiit. She's rocking the Bifrost 2/64 and the new Midgard for her ZMF Auteurs. I'm on the road right now and haven't had a chance to see it or hear it, so I'm super excited to audition her new daily driver rig with both her cans and mine.
LTA. I pulled the trigger on the Velo with the CanJam discount and I'm excited to pair it with my Gumby A1 and ZMF Atrium Closed. At the show it was being fed by a Chord Hugo, so I'm interested in the new synergy. It still hasn't shipped yet, but that's to be expected on a new product pre-order. I've also been shopping 12SN7s but haven't found any great deals on matched pairs yet. I did just swap out a JJ 6SN7 on my Lyr 3 for a Kenrad JAN 6SL7. I didn't like the Kenrad(s) on my Freya+ because there wasn't enough gain and there was a very loud popping in the speakers when I went past 12 O clock on the volume knob in either direction. So in my mind they weren't great and I put em back in the drawer for almost a year. Then I decided it was time to roll a new tube in the Lyr, and wow, it sounds way better in the Lyr. It opened up the soundstage a lot, has better low bass, and better detail/sparkle, but the mids aren't quite as lush. It's a different flavor for sure, and something I was enjoying while I was home, and I look forward to hearing again soon when I get back from my trip. I have a matched pair, so they should work out in the Velo when it arrives as well. I hope.
We had an agreement that I was going to get the Velo, and gingerFi would get a new Dac and my Lyr 3 as our upgrade plan. She has specific needs from her desk rig, she works from home, and her work system can't have outside software installed on it, nor can it interact with my home network where I keep all our music (FLAC on a NAS). So she wanted to be able to stream our music on her ZMFs, but also take calls from clients. The first solution was we hooked up her work laptop to her Hel via USB, and then got a Wiim Pro on a black friday deal and hooked it up via RCA-->3.5mm Y cable to the other Hel input. Then she could stream her music, and then flip the input to take a call from work on her other input, plus new usb microphone. The upgrade is complete, and now her work laptop goes to the usb input on the Bifrost, and the Wiim goes to the optical input. Both of those feed the midgard. She just swaps dac input to take a phone call. The other question is, why not pair the Auteurs with the wonderful tube-y goodness of the Lyr 3? We decided since the amp will be on, all day, almost everyday, partially playing music, but half the time doing service for work meetings and phone calls, it would be a waste of good tubes. So the midgard made more sense. Hopefully she'll get a review of it up at some point.
Back to CanJam, yep it was expensive fun. First, new cans in Dallas, then 2 new rigs after the fact. It was the gift that keeps expensing. But man was it fun. Plus, what other vacation do you get to come home with high end ZMFs as a souvenir?
10/10 Would can jam again.