[insert-here]

I agree with this. Some electronics have gotten much cheaper and yet much better over the years ( TV's, phones,CD players), yet if you had bought decent stereo equipment in the past it still rivals some of the current expensive lines. Sound quality wise, electronic's have not gotten much better no matter how much you spend. Does a $40K speaker system sound that much better than a $1k pair? Headphones will improve, but not by much if you could look into the future.

 

[stereolab]

So I received my Lyr/Bifrost stack today. Compared to my Pico, I honestly hardly notice any difference. The Schiit combo perhaps is a hair more detailed, but I doubt I reliably could conclude the same given a blind test. Maybe my ears either are too damaged or my brain not adept regarding acoustics. 

 

[hifimanrookie]

So I received my Lyr/Bifrost stack today. Compared to my Pico, I honestly hardly notice any difference. The Schiit combo perhaps is a hair more detailed, but I doubt I reliably could conclude the same given a blind test. Maybe my ears either are too damaged or my brain not adept regarding acoustics. 

What source do u use? And do u use quality files? (Flac,wav?) or only 192 or less files?) what headphone u have? And Its known the lyr is very sensitive to better tubes(tube rolling), the standard tubes are not of the best sounding kind (tip: check the lyr thread here on headfi concerning tuberolling),and the lyr needs at least 100 hours burn in time to sound optimum as being a tube based amp

Those things all matter whether u actually hear a difference...its a fact that if the rest of ur rig is above standard its easier to hear differences when u change something...

Hope this helps a bit.good luck..for the price ur combo is really good!

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

So I received my Lyr/Bifrost stack today. Compared to my Pico, I honestly hardly notice any difference. The Schiit combo perhaps is a hair more detailed, but I doubt I reliably could conclude the same given a blind test. Maybe my ears either are too damaged or my brain not adept regarding acoustics. 

Hard to compare DACs on brief listening, especially with new toys. I'd say give it a few days to familiarize yourself with new gears.

 

[MickeyVee]

Whoa.. give it some time.  The Bifrost needs a lot of burn in and the Lyr / tubes also do.  My Bifrost needed about a hundred hours or so on it. Also, even a minor step up in tubes such as the various Amperex do make a difference.  (stay with the stock tubes for a couple of months so you can acclimatize). Give it a couple of weeks.. keep listening and you will get to the.. ahhh... this is nice!
Quote:

So I received my Lyr/Bifrost stack today. Compared to my Pico, I honestly hardly notice any difference. The Schiit combo perhaps is a hair more detailed, but I doubt I reliably could conclude the same given a blind test. Maybe my ears either are too damaged or my brain not adept regarding acoustics. 

 

[oopeteroo]

anyone more can give a feedback Audio GD NFB 11.32 vs modi/magni with He500 ?

 

[h4mm3r 0f th0r]

Quote:

anyone more can give a feedback Audio GD NFB 11.32 vs modi/magni with He500 ?

i haven't tried the two pieces of schiit(so love their name) but i am currently using the he500 with 11.32. The dac is incredible for the price(i mean really really awesome if considering the detail in the sound) and the amp part is very powerful and gives about 2.7 watts into the headphone which is a lot more than the schiit amp and ofcourse better for the inefficient headphone he500.

 

[EasySounds]

Quote:

anyone more can give a feedback Audio GD NFB 11.32 vs modi/magni with He500 ?

Hey there,
 
I also faced the same dilemma; but in the end - thanks to the kind people on this forum - I was persuaded to go with the NFB 11.32.
 
I do have to disclose that I've never tried the HE-500 with any other amp/dac other than the NFB 11.32; I've never tried the Schiits.
 
It's just that I felt the general vibe was that the NFB 11.32 was good value for money. (Plus not being in the US, I get better freight deals with the NFB11.32 and also no issue with requiring transformers for the Schiits).

 

[oopeteroo]

Quote:

Hey there,
 
I also faced the same dilemma; but in the end - thanks to the kind people on this forum - I was persuaded to go with the NFB 11.32.
 
I do have to disclose that I've never tried the HE-500 with any other amp/dac other than the NFB 11.32; I've never tried the Schiits.
 
It's just that I felt the general vibe was that the NFB 11.32 was good value for money. (Plus not being in the US, I get better freight deals with the NFB11.32 and also no issue with requiring transformers for the Schiits).

yeah but modi/magni look so good and dont take so much space

 

[EasySounds]

Quote:

yeah but modi/magni look so good and dont take so much space

Hey there,
 
I'm not sure about the space requirements of the Schiits but the audio-gd NFB 11.32 is not really that big.
 
Roughly more than the breadth of 2.5 iPhone's breadth and the length of 2 iPhone's length, depth of prolly 3 iPhone's depths.
 
I'd say it's around 15.5cm (Breadth) x 22cm (Length) x 4cm (depth). Excluding the connectors and knob.

 

[stereolab]

Quote:

What source do u use? And do u use quality files? (Flac,wav?) or only 192 or less files?) what headphone u have? And Its known the lyr is very sensitive to better tubes(tube rolling), the standard tubes are not of the best sounding kind (tip: check the lyr thread here on headfi concerning tuberolling),and the lyr needs at least 100 hours burn in time to sound optimum as being a tube based amp

Those things all matter whether u actually hear a difference...its a fact that if the rest of ur rig is above standard its easier to hear differences when u change something...

Hope this helps a bit.good luck..for the price ur combo is really good!

 
Source - Spotify 320k and Flac/wav via Foobar
Headphone - HE-500
 
I suppose my expectations are the culprit as I figured adding tubes to my audio equation would produce a more striking contrast. The Schiit combo sounds fine; my only gripe is that the Pico sounds just as good (which is by all means a solid unit). 

 

[stereolab]

Quote:

Whoa.. give it some time.  The Bifrost needs a lot of burn in and the Lyr / tubes also do.  My Bifrost needed about a hundred hours or so on it. Also, even a minor step up in tubes such as the various Amperex do make a difference.  (stay with the stock tubes for a couple of months so you can acclimatize). Give it a couple of weeks.. keep listening and you will get to the.. ahhh... this is nice!

 
Yeah, I didn't mention I was going to return the Schiit right away as I realize I haven't had much time to settle in with the new gear. The Schiit sounds good by all means, just not very different from the Pico to my ears.
 
Regarding "burn-in," isn't this a controversial topic? Does the sound objectively change after so many hours?
 
I planned on investing in new tubes before I purchased the gear. My concern is if I failed to notice difference between my old setup and my new setup, I probably would not notice much difference with new tubes. Again, maybe my ears/brain are at fault here rather than the gear.

 

[roadcykler]

Quote:

Is it me or is there no such thing as 'end-game' on Head-Fi?

 
Sure there is, for some folks. Be content with what you have and enjoy the music. Or, set a dollar limit on what you'll spend and stick to it. For some people it's a seemingly never ending journey/game and as long as there are people like that the headphone companies will continue to release the next "flagship" piece of equipment that supposedly eclipses their last "flagship" model. 
 
It's a commonly held belief that something more expensive will sound better but anyone who can be even the slightest bit discerning knows that's not always the case. 

 

[disastermouse]

It's a commonly held belief that something more expensive will sound better but anyone who can be even the slightest bit discerning knows that's not always the case. 

You sir are a rabble rouser.

 

[GREQ]

Quote:

You sir are a rabble rouser.

Sounds like someone made some poor choices in Summit-fi territory and now has regrets 

 (just teasing).
 
I think what roadcykler is trying to say is that what sounds 'better' has more to do with taste (and maybe other things like expectation bias) rather than actual technical ability and quality. 
For various reasons I prefer the HE-500 to the HD800 for example. One is technically superior to the other, but they're quite different.