[MacedonianHero]

My Lion tubes arrived today.
 
holy hot dog on a stick what a pain it was to pull the stock tubes. 
 
On first listen with the Lions, major bummer, the hum that was present at 3 oclock is now always there - at min volume, with Transporter both off and on.  Letting the amp and tubes burn in for a couple of hours, the hum is still there, but now it's time to listen to tunes.
 
The good news is that the music quickly takes over, and the hum is not noticable even at low volume levels.  It comes back between songs, then only music.
 
I swapped out the stock power cable to a signalcable magicpower, and no difference with hum.
 
Right off the bat, I noticed that the Lions increased gain, db.  Overall volume is louder by a few mms on the dial.  Vocals in particular are a bit more forward, and have tons of life and realism.  Bass impact is only very slightly improved.
 
Ultimately, though, for tubes pretty much right out of the box the sound is awesome.  They certainly did nothing to hurt the sound.  The combination of the Lyr and the LCD2 is just magic, the best combination I've ever heard. 
 
The Lions right now give it a slight boost, but is the incremental improvement worth $90?  Eh, hard to say right now... frankly even if it doesn't improve, there's always that "peace of mind" knowing that I'm feeding the amp better tubes.
 
Lastly, this experience with the Lyr is making me rethink / reassess my previous push to balanced.  Does my Headroom Desktop balanced provide more power and bass impact?  Yes, significantly.  But the overall experience with the Lyr, the sound, the enjoyment, the increased clarity, the greater space and air between notes and vocals, less veil,...  I don't care to listen to my balanced given how good the Lyr sounds with the LCD2. 
 
 
 

deadie,

Have you communicated with Jason at Schiit about the hum?  Is the hum from the unit itself only or is it audible through the headphones?  I'd ask Jason, he might be able to quiet down your little Schiit.

What happened to the volume knob on your HeadRoom Balanced amp?  You might get improved clarity and details with a volume knob ... 

My experience so far is I've been surprised how little difference there is between the headphone output of my Lavry DA11 and the Lyr with stock tubes.  To be fair I need to give the Lyr tubes more time to settle in and last night I might have noticed a bit more life coming out of the Lyr, but still hard to tell.  I've been thinking of going Balanced as the next step up but your experiences have me second guessing going that route ... please keep the impressions coming.

Thanks!
 

Have you considered the possibility of a ground loop somewhere in your system? I hear absolutely zero hum with my LCD-2s and Lyr.

 

[USAudio]

Quote:

... On first listen with the Lions, major bummer, the hum that was present at 3 oclock is now always there - at min volume, with Transporter both off and on.  Letting the amp and tubes burn in for a couple of hours, the hum is still there, but now it's time to listen to tunes.
 
The good news is that the music quickly takes over, and the hum is not noticable even at low volume levels.  It comes back between songs, then only music.
 
I swapped out the stock power cable to a signalcable magicpower, and no difference with hum.
... Lastly, this experience with the Lyr is making me rethink / reassess my previous push to balanced.  Does my Headroom Desktop balanced provide more power and bass impact?  Yes, significantly.  But the overall experience with the Lyr, the sound, the enjoyment, the increased clarity, the greater space and air between notes and vocals, less veil,...  I don't care to listen to my balanced given how good the Lyr sounds with the LCD2.

Looking back at your post a couple more quick comments:
Has anyone suggested any of these products to address your hum?
http://www.ebtechaudio.com/humxdes.html
http://www.ciaudio.com/products/XDC2
http://www.psaudio.com/ps/products/detail/humbuster-iii
My Lyr is still dead-quiet, it is plugged into an inexpensive power conditioner: http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=h15
 
Re: balanced -- I'm surprised the Lyr gives you "increased clarity, the greater space and air between notes and vocals, less veil" over the balanced HR amp since balanced is supposed to offer greater control of the driver.  Maybe you have general power issues that are negatively affecting the HR Balanced amp as well?  I don't remember, do you have the DPS power supply for the HR Balanced amp?

 

[deadie]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the feedback.
 
First off, I have one of these in between my various HT gear.  I have decent stuff, Kuro plasma, new Marantz 7005 processor, Emotiva XPA2 amp, Logitech Transporter, etc so I figured I wasn't going to cheap out when it came to power conditioning / protection.
 
So it's somewhat of a bummer to think I might have a ground loop when plugging the Lyr into the power box.  But I know there's more to it than that...
 
I haven't contacted Schitt yet about the Lyr, want to make sure I fully diagnose my own situation / issues before I start to wonder about the amp.  Today, I'll move the amp around the house, onto different outlets to see if moving the Lyr out of the HT will do anything.
 
Also, I haven't yet explored the various "anti-hum" / ground loop products yet. 
 
US Audio - I don't have the DPS for the Headroom.  I was thrilled with its performance for years, with my balanced AKG701, until my new combo came along.  Heck if you trust me, let's arrange to where you "temporarily buy" the headroom, I'll ship it to you for however long you want to demo it, and I'll just refund you the money.  PM if you're interested.
 
The difference in clarity and air and better vocals isn't subtle between the Headroom and Lyr, so I'm confident you'll hear it straight away.
 
As to the volume knob, ah that dumb thing just fell off within a week of me receiving the amp.  The culprit was a micro threaded screw (2mm) that Headroom was good enough to ship to me for free, but for the life of me, I couldn't install it. 
 
 

 

[Frankie K]

It is kind of odd that some hear a hum and other's don't, could it be the unit itself or thru the electrical oulet itself. Keep Us up on this, hopefully You find the culprit!

 

[USAudio]

Quote:

It is kind of odd that some hear a hum and other's don't, could it be the unit itself or thru the electrical oulet itself. Keep Us up on this, hopefully You find the culprit!

Or maybe some folks have dimmer switches somewhere on the same circuit ... those are notorious for causing electrical issues for audiophiles.


 

 

[deadie]

Great news - it's not the Lyr nor the tubes that are causing the hum.
 
Bad news.  It's my room.  Mother, son of a, for pete's sake.
 
First I unplugged everything in the room except the Lyr.  Hum
 
Lyr + HumX with and without Gray Power supply, hum.
 
Took Lyr out of room, into the dining room, straight into the wall.  No hum.
 
 
The HumX is going back to Guitar Center, and now I suppose it's a matter of pursuing other more expensive options.
 

 

[USAudio]

Quote:

Great news - it's not the Lyr nor the tubes that are causing the hum.
 
Bad news.  It's my room.  Mother, son of a, for pete's sake.
 
First I unplugged everything in the room except the Lyr.  Hum
 
Lyr + HumX with and without Gray Power supply, hum.
 
Took Lyr out of room, into the dining room, straight into the wall.  No hum.
 
 
The HumX is going back to Guitar Center, and now I suppose it's a matter of pursuing other more expensive options.
 

Great!  So it's not a grounding issue and I'm sure you've eliminated other possibilities like dimmer switches and fluorescent lighting ...  Maybe there's too much DC on the line? 
Here's an informative article, though they're of course trying to sell you on their solutions where something more affordable might prove an effective remedy:
http://www.psaudio.com/ps/how-to/finding-and-fixing-hum

 

[deadie]

No fluoro lighting in the room, nor a dimmer switch, but I do have one of those upside down outlets that is controlled via a wall switch.  The Richard Gray power supply, and thus the Lyr are not plugged into that switch.
 
Thanks for the article. 
 
I gotta figure out if I should invest $$ in a hum solution for that room, or move my transporter + amp headphone system to somewhere else in the house...  Not sure if this matters, but this is a fairly new 4 year old house.

 

[fiver]

Quote:

 
holy hot dog on a stick what a pain it was to pull the stock tubes. 
 

 

Use a length painters tape folded in half.  Get purchase with the tape on both exposed sides of the tube.  Squeeze the tape gently against the tube with with your thumb and forefinger.  With your opposite hand, pull straight up on the length of folded in half tape that you have left yourself as a handle.
 
They pop right out instantly with no fuss using this method and there is zero tape residue to clean.

 

[USAudio]

FYI - On this page Jason from Schiit recommends to remove the tubes you "Use the foam provided with the tubes to grab them.":
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/schiit/10.html

 

[oopsydaisy]

Quote:

Great news - it's not the Lyr nor the tubes that are causing the hum.
 
Bad news.  It's my room.  Mother, son of a, for pete's sake.
 
First I unplugged everything in the room except the Lyr.  Hum
 
Lyr + HumX with and without Gray Power supply, hum.
 
Took Lyr out of room, into the dining room, straight into the wall.  No hum.
 
 
The HumX is going back to Guitar Center, and now I suppose it's a matter of pursuing other more expensive options.
 

Do you have a cable/satellite box in that room? If so, I'd suspect that it is the culprit as I had this issue in my HT a while back. I got a ground loop isolator that goes between the cable coming in from the wall to the cable/satellite box. It was a few years back, so I'd have to search for a link, but I'll PM a link when I find it. BTW, your comments on the Lyr are really making me consider putting it on my short list. Damn you!

 

 

[deadie]

 
Quote:

Do you have a cable/satellite box in that room? If so, I'd suspect that it is the culprit as I had this issue in my HT a while back. I got a ground loop isolator that goes between the cable coming in from the wall to the cable/satellite box. It was a few years back, so I'd have to search for a link, but I'll PM a link when I find it. BTW, your comments on the Lyr are really making me consider putting it on my short list. Damn you!

 

 
If I can corrupt, just as those before me have corrupted and bankrupted my wallet, then, well... 

 
I don't actually have a cable outlet in the room, nor ethernet jacks.  As this is / was a new house, I was more than a little po'd when I found my to be HT had neither outlet.  But, that's neither here nor there now, and I can't blame them for the hum. 
 
I'm now wrestling with getting the PS Audio Humbuster... agh, another $200+.  That's quite a few BluRays, two good pairs of running shoes, an awesome surf and turf meal, 1/10 the way to a used 5DMkII body.  sigh.
 
Seriously, the Lyr, just get it.  I've put about 10 hours on the Genelex Lions, and they just get better and better, but the stock tubes were fine. 
 
Fiver & USAudio - thanks for pointing me to the tube removal tips.

 

[USAudio]

deadie, Do you have a friend that is an electrician? 

 

[Frankie K]

Good tip's on removing the tube's by the way Guy's and Gal's,  I remember seeing an Audio outlet on the DecWare site, it was specific for audio equipment and I did not see specific's on it. I wonder if any one else has one and if there is another place that sell's them and maybe get some more info on that. I'm glad to hear You found the problem,
the name of the company is PorterHouse Audio and the name of the outlet is Porter Ports $36. ea.. They the sound improve's drastically with these outlet's and maybe they will be the solution for the humming, I Hope!

 

[deadie]

Agreed, thanks tons all.  Hopefully these tips will assist others who have evidently noisy AC like me. 
 
USAudio - I don't know an electrician, but I have friends who knows a guy, who knows a guy...