[Sonido]

It is too big for me because I'am an civil engineering student and I need plenty of space when doing my projects and sketches. Maybe in the future I will find some space for it, or even 337.  :wink_face:

In b4 Lepai

Which actually imo is better than an underpowered portable headphone amp like O2.

 

[Anda]

In b4 Lepai

 
Which one?

 

[Sonido]

Which one?

The $20 class-T one that's the most popular speaker amp on Amazon. It's quite polarizing on here, with some praising its value and sound, and others sick of hearing about it. Regardless, it's a tiny amp that has the power to drive the HE-500 fine.

 

[Nimzerz]

STOP. BRINGING. THAT. CRAP. UP! STAHHHHPPPPP
no really, stop bringing that POS up in this thread. I'm one of those people sick of hearing it

 

[daerron]

 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Hey Guys,
Quite a while ago I bought  HE-500's along with Nuforce Icon HDP. The sound was pretty nice but i felt that cans of that caliber could do better. After reading over 200 pages of this thread I knew that they should and the best I could go for was the Schiit Lyr, since Emotiva was too big to fit on my desk. I went to my local music shop to buy something more powerful.
Guy in the shop hooked my HE-500's to Oppo BDP83SE CD player and Lyr.  I was listening to Dire Straits first album, Queen - The Game and Norah Jones -  Come Away With Me albums. All of them were CD's. I waited 15 minutes until tubes will get warm. "Sultans Of Swing" track was my first choice. It is a very fast song and frankly I think that Lyr couldn't keep up the pace. It was sluggish and bit muddy to my ears. It had this powerful base but the mids and higs were blurred, also the soundstage was smaller than on my HDP which was extremely weird to me. "Water Of Love" was 2nd on my song queue (I love it because of this epic intro

). Unfortunately I found the situation to be the same as in previous track. It was muddy and lacking details. I listened to few other songs from that album and after that I listened to Norah Jones.
This kind of music was clearly a better choice than anything else. Norah's voice was beautify melting and flooding whole scene, but things like guitar and piano were little a bit too muddy. After another 4-5 tracks I decided not to buy the Lyr. 
The guy from the shop was really surprised of my decision, but before I've reached an exit doors he asked me to try one more thing. He swapped out the Lyr with the Asgard 2. I've listened to the same songs again and I came to conclusion that it was like 20-25 times better. The clarity came back, so did the separation, details, soundstage and the smile of the shop owner .

 I've never heard "Water Of Love" reproduced like that. It was a night and day difference. The only thing that Lyr did better was the base. It was "bigger" and heavier, but after all I decided to buy the Asgard. 
 
I'am using it along with my HDP as a DAC connected to my computer via USB for half a year now and I decided to find something better. Funny thing is that I am still thinking about getting Lyr because I don't remember which tubes it had when I was listening to it last time. I know for sure that they were stock but i don't know whether they were JJ tubes or GE.  I also heard that HiFiMan's EF-5 could be a better choice over Lyr. Anyone can comment on that ? Maybe some other amp would do better than EF-5 in similar price range ?

 

 
The Lyr is only going to sound as good as its tubes. I reckon Schiit is making a mistake bundling these tubes with the Lyr as standard. Try some Genalex Gold Lions 6922 or the Amperex orange label 6922 tubes and I bet you'll be much happier and the Asgard will whither from memory.
 
Another nice option is the Project Ember from Garage1217 which is also a powerful tube hybrid. I had the Project Sunrise 2 and it is a cracking amp, but I preferred the Emotiva Mini-X by some distance. It wasn't till I tried the Mini-X that I realised the HE-500s could do bass and impact. Jeremy recently stated in a newsletter that they are brewing up a high powered solid amp so I'm quite interested to see what they come up with. I love the quality of their products. The EF5 also remains a good choice and for another solid state option, check out the Lake People G109P, but I guess it will be expensive in the states.

 

[themad]

The $20 class-T one that's the most popular speaker amp on Amazon. It's quite polarizing on here, with some praising its value and sound, and others sick of hearing about it. Regardless, it's a tiny amp that has the power to drive the HE-500 fine.

 
 There's an improved version of it available here:
http://www.nsmt-loudspeakers.com/Modified-Lepai-T-Amp
 
Looks pretty well finished and received a couple of good reviews. Starts at $99 - yeah, 5 times the cost of the original version - still quite cheap, IMO.
 
 I'll probably buy one sooner or later. Worst case scenario I can use it to drive a pair of speakers.

 

[Oregonian]

 
Mmm the D5000 is an updated D2000. The d7k, th-600, and th900 all kind of stand on their own with different drivers respectively. D2000 and D5000 share the same driver.

 
The bold statement I agree with 100%.  I've had all three (still have the D7K and TH900) and they are clones of each other soundwise to these 52 year old ears.  Bliss.

 

[Chris_Himself]

Don't get the HDP. I had a bunch of them and there are a good chunk of amps that are considerably better value for money. 388mw @ 32ohms is not a great amount of output for $449.

 

[Georgo94]

   
The Lyr is only going to sound as good as its tubes. I reckon Schiit is making a mistake bundling these tubes with the Lyr as standard. Try some Genalex Gold Lions 6922 or the Amperex orange label 6922 tubes and I bet you'll be much happier and the Asgard will whither from memory.
 
Another nice option is the Project Ember from Garage1217 which is also a powerful tube hybrid. I had the Project Sunrise 2 and it is a cracking amp, but I preferred the Emotiva Mini-X by some distance. It wasn't till I tried the Mini-X that I realised the HE-500s could do bass and impact. Jeremy recently stated in a newsletter that they are brewing up a high powered solid amp so I'm quite interested to see what they come up with. I love the quality of their products. The EF5 also remains a good choice and for another solid state option, check out the Lake People G109P, but I guess it will be expensive in the states.

I think i will try Lyr with orange label 6922 tubes. Thanks for help Daerron.

 

[Georgo94]

  Don't get the HDP. I had a bunch of them and there are a good chunk of amps that are considerably better value for money. 388mw @ 32ohms is not a great amount of output for $449.

Actually I got HDP before I got HE-500. It was working with my old Sennheiser's 595. Right now I use it only as a DAC.

 

[Chris_Himself]

  Actually I got HDP before I got HE-500. It was working with my old Sennheiser's 595. Right now I use it only as a DAC.

The DAC section is amazing, it was just lacking as a dedicated headphone amp. I actually still use one as a preamp for the TV setup

 

[Georgo94]

  The DAC section is amazing, it was just lacking as a dedicated headphone amp. I actually still use one as a preamp for the TV setup

Do you think getting Bifrost instead of HDP would be a good idea ? Anybody have Bifrost  Lyr/EF-5 combo?

 

[Textfeud]

  Do you think getting Bifrost instead of HDP would be a good idea ? Anybody have Bifrost  Lyr/EF-5 combo?

Yes, I have Bifrost with Lyr and it's awesome. But yeah, tubes make a big difference. 

 

[normanwang1992]

  Linking the photo so that people can just see them:
 

looks amazing. I really wanna get one of those. The headband problem is killing me..

 

[Nimzerz]

What headband problem?... I still have no clue what the problem was with the old headband..