Hi,
Just wondering if anyone can give me any advice with regard to choosing between the Schiit Lyr and the Audio-GD SA-31 to pair with my HE-500.
I am currently using an M-stage, and while I am enjoying my 500s out of that I'm pretty keen on getting myself some of this 'bigger sound' / better bass etc that apparently is to be gained by moving up to a 2W+ amp. I have done HEAPS of reading of the relevant threads but I just wondered whether someone might have a preference given what I'm specifically hoping to get out of it.
While I was shopping for my headphones, I got an opportunity to listen to the Audeze LCD-2s... and I loved these headphones. But I started off not wanting to spend more than $400, and although it ended up kreeping up to $700 for the HE-500 .. I had to draw the line somewhere unfortunately. I really enjoy impressive bass. I also love gorgeous vocals, and I've come accross several posts where people have spoken emotively about how much they enjoy female vocals through a tube or hybrid amp ... but now I'm getting into this audiophile headphone thing, I don't really want to be sacrificing any detail / instrument separation in order to achieve some kind of 'dreamy' smoothness of sound. The genres I listen to are: a lot of electronic music, pretty or down-tempo alternative electro, dub, EDM (fairly picky about what dance music I'll listen to though), the more 'musical' end of alternative, occasionally rock and I'm trying to get into the habit of listening to a bit of classical every so often as well. I was keen on going for the Lyr for a while - I really like the look of it and the 5 year warranty sounds good. But I don't know... is it really going to offer any kind of edge over the SA-31? Maybe I should just stick with solid state. I definitely don't have any intention of making a hobby of tube rolling. I would probably do a heap of reading, make say a $120 max purchase on replacement tubes, and then that would be me done (...until they died of course). I have heard about what an excellent choice that Emotiva speaker amp is, but it's a heavy little unit and shipping it to Australia is going to be prohibitive. Maybe the answer is that, coming from the Matrix, I'm likely to be very impressed and content with either one of them. But anyway any advice would be much appreciated. I haven't yet invested in a DAC, but will buy something fairly entry-level such as the ODAC as my next purchase after changing my amp.
