Issue regarding sound quality with Schiit amp

[plaudium]

Hello! A Friend of mine is letting me borrow his Shciit Lyr while he is out of town and I don't think I am doing something right. I have been using my HD 700's with my Creative ZXR (both of which I know aren't praised much here). Anyways, I have been enjoying this combo for a while but feel like going with an external amp would be best, hence while I am borrowing the Lyr.
 
The main reason I would like to have an external amp is to be able to go home for holidays and whatnot without having to take home my desktop. My other source for music is my Samsung series 9 laptop with a Realtek ALC269, which I cannot stand. music of any quality sounds incredibly thin and seems to roll off at around ~100Hz on the low and rolls off the highs as well. Because of this, I have never gone to my laptop for listening to music. I was under the impression that running the music through the Lyr would extend both sides of the spectrum, as well as widening the sound-stage, while also being rich and full. After plugging in, it sounded the exact same as it did prior to having the amp. It is almost as if the amp is being bypassed and is just being used as a volume control.
 
I'm not sure if my understanding of amps is completely wrong or if something is wrong with how I am setting things up. My desktop has an Asus Sabertooth Z77 motherboard with the Creative ZXR plugged into it. The difference I noticed going from the motherboard to ZXR was substantial, while the Realtek ALC269 to the Lyr sounds the same. I have done a few hours of research into the lyr and have an understanding of how it is supposedly suppose to sound; I am not hearing it on my end.
 
Extra details:
The amp was bought around the beginning of December, so it is new.
Setup for desktop: Asus Sabertooth Z77 >> Creative ZXR (SBX software turned off) >> HD700
Setup for laptop: Samsung Series 9/Realtek ALC269 >> Headphone to stereo cables >> Lyr >> HD700

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by plaudium /img/forum/go_quote.gif

 

The main reason I would like to have an external amp is to be able to go home for holidays and whatnot without having to take home my desktop. My other source for music is my Samsung series 9 laptop with a Realtek ALC269, which I cannot stand. music of any quality sounds incredibly thin and seems to roll off at around ~100Hz on the low and rolls off the highs as well. Because of this, I have never gone to my laptop for listening to music. I was under the impression that running the music through the Lyr would extend both sides of the spectrum, as well as widening the sound-stage, while also being rich and full. After plugging in, it sounded the exact same as it did prior to having the amp. It is almost as if the amp is being bypassed and is just being used as a volume control.

 

I'm not sure if my understanding of amps is completely wrong or if something is wrong with how I am setting things up. My desktop has an Asus Sabertooth Z77 motherboard with the Creative ZXR plugged into it. The difference I noticed going from the motherboard to ZXR was substantial, while the Realtek ALC269 to the Lyr sounds the same. I have done a few hours of research into the lyr and have an understanding of how it is supposedly suppose to sound; I am not hearing it on my end.

 

Extra details:

The amp was bought around the beginning of December, so it is new.

Setup for desktop: Asus Sabertooth Z77 >> Creative ZXR (SBX software turned off) >> HD700

Setup for laptop: Samsung Series 9/Realtek ALC269 >> Headphone to stereo cables >> Lyr >> HD700

 

An amplifier ideally has to be a "wire with gain." Whatever signal went in, it should come out for the most part identical but strong enough to drive a headphone or speaker with no distortion. It does not add or subtract anything to the signal. It is after all an amplifier, which literally means it will amplify the input signal, hence the reason why it is not called a warmifying bass boostifier bombasticator. If the signal going into a good amplifier is crap, then the signal leaving it will be more powerful crap with no added noise. Otherwise, the only real reason for an amplifier to improve the sound is if you can perceive audible distortion from whatever you were using to drive the headphone (or speaker) before it. As it is the HD700 isn't that difficult to drive - it's effectively just as efficient as the HD600 but with half the impedance so it has a much lower possibility of taxing whatever it's plugged into.

 

As for the ZXR sounding better, it's not just the software that may have some kind of sound shaping effect, it could be that its analogue circuit is skewed to boost the bass. That, or the laptop and mobo are both rolling off badly. What you should do really is feed a line level output from the ZXR into the Lyr and then listen to what that sounds like.

 

[SeaWo|f]

One thing that might be hurting sound quality is if the outputs you are using from your computer are amplified. Because you then have double amplification. This could really hurt because the lyr does no processing i have no idea what the zxr is doing even if you have things turned if in the drivers.
I'm also not sure how the lyr matches with the hd70

 

[Currawong]

You'd preferably want a DAC between the laptop and the Lyr. A DAC is basically an external sound card for all intents and purposes. I had exactly the same experience when I started on Head-Fi: I bought a wonderful pair of headphones and an amp and found that the amp couldn't improve on how good (or bad) the computer's sound card is.