[Revelation Sound]

How much better do you find high end headphone amplifiers vs the lower costs THX Amplifiers. Granted the THX amplifiers are amazing for their sound and price. But when you look at something like a SPL headphone amp vs the pretty clean and neutral amps under $650, what advantage if any do you find with them? Is a higher end tube amp really much better than a Schitt Lyr headphone amp

 

[chesebert]

Like listening to a different pair headphone. Your cheapest Koss ports pro would sound like a kilobuck masterpiece. All this assumes you have a high-end source.

 

[Deolum]

In my opinion amps are overrated and have almost the least impact in the chain especially when it comes to price. I've owned multi kilobuck amps and cheap amps and can't say that the expensive ones were better (hence i sold them). Whats more important is the tonal synergy between amp and headphone and the right amount of power.

When it comes to tubes i would stay away from the cheap ones though but here my experience is limited.

 

[dunring]

I have a Topping A90, D30Pro/A30Pro stack, L30, and Sabaj A20h. I just got last week a JDS Atom+DAC+ stack and was really happily surprised to hear how it kept up in sound. I would put most money into headphones, amps and DACs have gotten so good that it's really if you need balanced for planar current, price, and connections. Headphones up to the $400 range are the best return on money. After that the diminishing rate of return gets brutal. Rather have several different pairs than one kilobuck model.

 

[dougms3]

How much better do you find high end headphone amplifiers vs the lower costs THX Amplifiers. Granted the THX amplifiers are amazing for their sound and price. But when you look at something like a SPL headphone amp vs the pretty clean and neutral amps under $650, what advantage if any do you find with them? Is a higher end tube amp really much better than a Schitt Lyr headphone amp

I think once you've heard and compared a higher end amp vs something like thx amps, you will understand the difference.

The thx amps do sound very resolving and reduce noise but they also compress the sound and flatten it, basically kills bass and dynamics. Its much more noticeable on an r2r setup vs delta sigma. Perhaps thats why they usually pair them with DS dacs. If thats acceptable to you, to each their own.

But for me its not acceptable, it basically kills the character of the r2r sound, which is a more holographic, open, airy, bigger stage/depth, better dynamics and bass.

These characteristics are not one of those things you can measure with an oscilloscope.

 

[afgani]

Is a higher end tube amp really much better than a Schitt Lyr headphone amp

everyone should find their own answer to this question, if you are ready to spend money on amplifiers - no one bothers you to do this, if not - you can always find something that sounds good for not a lot of money

 

[jonathan c]

I think once you've heard and compared a higher end amp vs something like thx amps, you will understand the difference.

The thx amps do sound very resolving and reduce noise but they also compress the sound and flatten it, basically kills bass and dynamics. Its much more noticeable on an r2r setup vs delta sigma. Perhaps thats why they usually pair them with DS dacs. If thats acceptable to you, to each their own.

But for me its not acceptable, it basically kills the character of the r2r sound, which is a more holographic, open, airy, bigger stage/depth, better dynamics and bass.

These characteristics are not one of those things you can measure with an oscilloscope.

I totally concur!

 

[Davidzak64]

I think it has everything to do with the headphones your trying to drive and amp synergy rather than cost. Some HP's love the warmth of tubes while others prefer the more clean low THD % of SS. My preference is using warm SS amplification that can drive my higher impedance HPs easily.

The versatility of an older integrated amplifier or receiver can make you much more happy than you could imagine. Just my 2 cents, FWIW

 

[Revelation Sound]

I totally concur!

So the SPL Phonitor E would perform better than the Toppings A90 D.....which it seems many others have said....which does not take away on how good the Toppings sound in its price range.

 

[luckybaer]

I have a Auralic Taurus MkII, along with a Vali 2 and Magni 3 (I have a Quicksilver HA, but not long enough to opine with any degree of authority), and I notice differences.

The Vali 2 and Magni 3 are really nice entry-level amps. Where they obviously fall behind the Taurus is clarity, microdynamics, and plankton.

The higher end amp seems to have a blacker background, which provides more clarity and less “grey” or “haze.”

The less-expensive amps sometimes seem to smooth over sounds, hence they don’t retrieve the plankton as well (like texture around vocals, strings, etc.).

Finally, I do notice a bigger difference in the presentation of the softest of sounds. I can pick them out much more easily with the beefier Taurus.

However, headphones and source (all the way to the actual media) have more of an impact on how things sound. At least IMHO.

 

[Reputator]

Past $650, you're really getting deep into the diminishing returns area, and you should really have summit-fi headphones/source to justify it.

I've noticed pretty big differences going from $150-200 amps to $400-600 amps, but that was with $500-1800 headphones. The differences were mostly in the areas of soundstage size/depth, instrument separation and clarity, and microdetail.

 

[Mark200]

Past $650, you're really getting deep into the diminishing returns area, and you should really have summit-fi headphones/source to justify it.

I've noticed pretty big differences going from $150-200 amps to $400-600 amps, but that was with $500-1800 headphones. The differences were mostly in the areas of soundstage size/depth, instrument separation and clarity, and microdetail.

My Schiit Magnius headphone amp ($200) has exceptional clarity and microdetail when used with balanced connections, even to the point where it may be too much detail for mediocre recordings.

As far as soundstage and depth, I personally don't believe that can be improved by an amp from the original recording, except to degrade it, and I can guarantee that the Schiit Magnius does not degrade either of those. Soundstage and depth are more properties of headphones and speakers, rather than amps. Obviously, the soundstage and depth properties of the original recoding dwarfs any changes made by electronic equipment.

Some people prefer tubes for their softer sound, and I don't necessarily criticize that because there is a lot of poorly record and engineered music these days that is designed be played via cheap earbuds, and sounds too harsh when played on well-deigned and accurate solid state equipment. There are some solid-state amps that try and emulate the softness of tubes, but that detracts from their clarity and microdetail.

 

[Reputator]

My Schiit Magnius headphone amp ($200) has exceptional clarity and microdetail when used with balanced connections, even to the point where it may be too much detail for mediocre recordings.

As far as soundstage and depth, I personally don't believe that can be improved by an amp from the original recording, except to degrade it, and I can guarantee that the Schiit Magnius does not degrade either of those. Soundstage and depth are more properties of headphones and speakers, rather than amps. Obviously, the soundstage and depth properties of the original recoding dwarfs any changes made by electronic equipment.

Some people prefer tubes for their softer sound, and I don't necessarily criticize that because there is a lot of poorly record and engineered music these days that is designed be played via cheap earbuds, and sounds too harsh when played on well-deigned and accurate solid state equipment. There are some solid-state amps that try and emulate the softness of tubes, but that detracts from their clarity and microdetail.

So then... my next question would be, is the Magnius the highest level amp you've heard?

 

[Mark200]

I have a Auralic Taurus MkII, along with a Vali 2 and Magni 3 (I have a Quicksilver HA, but not long enough to opine with any degree of authority), and I notice differences.

The Vali 2 and Magni 3 are really nice entry-level amps. Where they obviously fall behind the Taurus is clarity, microdynamics, and plankton.

The higher end amp seems to have a blacker background, which provides more clarity and less “grey” or “haze.”

The less-expensive amps sometimes seem to smooth over sounds, hence they don’t retrieve the plankton as well (like texture around vocals, strings, etc.).

Finally, I do notice a bigger difference in the presentation of the softest of sounds. I can pick them out much more easily with the beefier Taurus.

However, headphones and source (all the way to the actual media) have more of an impact on how things sound. At least IMHO.

The Vali 2 headphone amp has a tube front end, so not surprising that some clarity and micro-dynamics is lost compared to a pure solid-state design. I don't know much about the Magni 3, but you can't ask for a lot from a $109 amp.

In my experience, buying amps based on price is a mistake (if one is assuming the higher priced ones sound better). I originally bought the $600 Singxer SA-1, but sold it quickly because it sounded "veiled" compared to the $199 Schiit Magnius (or even the headphone outputs of an old mas-market receiver).

 

[Mark200]

So then... my next question would be, is the Magnius the highest level amp you've heard?

As far as headphone amps, I owned a Creek OBH-11 SE pure class A amp for 20 years, until it finally died about a year ago. This was the best headphone amp I have ever heard, and used pure discrete components (no IC's of any kind in the amp). When I say "discrete" I don't mean just no op-amps, I mean no IC's of any kind.

Then I bought the $600 Singxer SA-1 after watching at least 10 YouTube reviews of the unit. It sounded like crap (as opposed to sounding like Schiit). The sound was highly veiled, although I did not do the jumper mods to bypass the capacitors (most reviewers said it only made a very minor difference).

Aside from using headphone amps, I have been listening to high-end audio gear for 50 years, ever since I had a part-time job in a high end audio shop while in college. Since then I have attended several high-end audio shows, and heard state of the art audio equipment with virtually unlimited price tags, both tube and solid state.

There is no question in my mind that reviewers and most owners of equipment are overly influenced by the price of the unit, rather than the sound.