[shalingang]

Quote:

Barring speaker amps, I don't know of any amps cheaper than this one that can deliver similar power levels.  Even a decent DIY beta22 will probably cost more.

thanks a lot. I am making up my mind.

 

[Dicetrain]

This amp intrigues and frightens me.
 
Say you have some Grados at typical 32ohms with max power handling of 200mW then this amp comes along with 6000mW. Does this mean if you happen to sneeze while carefully turning up the volume up from zero you will be out several hundred dollars and possibly go deaf? I feel a lot safer with the Valhalla.

 

[Kremer930]

More power means that even at low volumes the amp will control the speaker that much easily and more accurately.  It will only unleash its full 6 watts if you tell it to do so. Think of a powerful car.  Just because it has 400hp doesnt mean that it is any more difficult to drive slowly.
 

 

[wuwhere]

Lol, I doubt it.
 
Quote:

This amp intrigues and frightens me.
 
Say you have some Grados at typical 32ohms with max power handling of 200mW then this amp comes along with 6000mW. Does this mean if you happen to sneeze while carefully turning up the volume up from zero you will be out several hundred dollars and possibly go deaf? I feel a lot safer with the Valhalla.

 

[Dicetrain]

Quote:

More power means that even at low volumes the amp will control the speaker that much easily and more accurately.  It will only unleash its full 6 watts if you tell it to do so. Think of a powerful car.  Just because it has 400hp doesnt mean that it is any more difficult to drive slowly.
 

 
The question is how. I don't see a stick shift on the Lyr pictures, so I don't get how fine adjustment within such a small fraction of the power available translates into physical control. When you're talking about safely and easily moving around within only a 200mW range, does that mean you have to turn the volume knob around 30 times to reach 6000mW?

 

[wuwhere]

Typically, a volume potentiometer has a rating in kilo Ohms, say 100KOhms, and it has a rotational angle, say 300 degrees. So at full counterclockwise, it applies 100kOhms, so almost no sound comes out from your headphones. At full clockwise,  zero resistance so, the rated voltage of the amp appears at the output.
 
Quote:

Quote:

More power means that even at low volumes the amp will control the speaker that much easily and more accurately.  It will only unleash its full 6 watts if you tell it to do so. Think of a powerful car.  Just because it has 400hp doesnt mean that it is any more difficult to drive slowly.
 

 
The question is how. I don't see a stick shift on the Lyr pictures, so I don't get how fine adjustment within such a small fraction of the power available translates into physical control. When you're talking about safely and easily moving around within only a 200mW range, does that mean you have to turn the volume knob around 30 times to reach 6000mW?

 

[wuwhere]

Also most volume pots are log tapered, meaning the resistance is applied logarithmically not linear.

 

[xnor]

Quote:

More power means that even at low volumes the amp will control the speaker that much easily and more accurately.

 
More power doesn't mean something is automatically better. In fact, more power tells you nothing about the performance of the amplifier and certainly does not indicate higher accuracy, that's a fallacy.
 
If you really only need a fraction of the power then I think you're better off with another amp that matches your setup (that can give you lower noise, distortion etc.), for various reasons. If you need the power due to inefficient cans, then this is the right way to go. Ymmv.

 

[Skylab]

Quote:

Also most volume pots are log tapered, meaning the resistance is applied logarithmically not linear.

Indeed, but this will be an interesting thing to learn about the Lyr - if one does try to use it with high efficiency headphones like Grados, will one be restricted to such a small portion of the volume control's range that it becomes difficult to use?  I'm not saying this will be the case, but it could be.  Only time will tell. 
 
But of course the real purpose if this amp is for those much harder to drive cans.  And for that, if it delivers the way the first two Schiit amps have, it will be a godsend.

 

[revolink24]

I wouldn't even bother with the Lyr for Grados. Sure, Grados love current, but a gain of 10 is just too much. 3 or 4 is perfect for Grados.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Quote:

More power means that even at low volumes the amp will control the speaker that much easily and more accurately.  It will only unleash its full 6 watts if you tell it to do so. Think of a powerful car.  Just because it has 400hp doesnt mean that it is any more difficult to drive slowly.
 

 
The question is how. I don't see a stick shift on the Lyr pictures, so I don't get how fine adjustment within such a small fraction of the power available translates into physical control. When you're talking about safely and easily moving around within only a 200mW range, does that mean you have to turn the volume knob around 30 times to reach 6000mW?

Volume controls are logarithmic in their progression through their resistance range.  The first 30 % of rotation give you very fine control over very minute changes in volume and power.  The next thirty percent of rotation apply a little more power so that at the end of the first sixty percent of rotation you're accessing maybe 20% of the amp's power on tap.  Remember, the output volume is still wholly dependent upon the input signal volume.  Quiet is still quiet whether you're at 0 volume or 60% volume.  The last 30% of the rotation of the volume knob gives access to the rest of the amplifier power.  You basically would never need to go there.

 

[revolink24]

Quote:

Quote:

More power means that even at low volumes the amp will control the speaker that much easily and more accurately.  It will only unleash its full 6 watts if you tell it to do so. Think of a powerful car.  Just because it has 400hp doesnt mean that it is any more difficult to drive slowly.
 

 
The question is how. I don't see a stick shift on the Lyr pictures, so I don't get how fine adjustment within such a small fraction of the power available translates into physical control. When you're talking about safely and easily moving around within only a 200mW range, does that mean you have to turn the volume knob around 30 times to reach 6000mW?

Volume controls are logarithmic in their progression through their resistance range.  The first 30 % of rotation give you very fine control over very minute changes in volume and power.  The next thirty percent of rotation apply a little more power so that at the end of the first sixty percent of rotation you're accessing maybe 20% of the amp's power on tap.  Remember, the output volume is still wholly dependent upon the input signal volume.  Quiet is still quiet whether you're at 0 volume or 60% volume.  The last 30% of the rotation of the volume knob gives access to the rest of the amplifier power.  You basically would never need to go there.

Huh? Last time I checked audio pots were logarithmic because that was how human interpretation of decibels worked, and also that in a logarithmic function, the function varies more at the start, not less.

Logarithmic potentiometers in audio are used to give the perception of linear volume.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Quote:

Volume controls are logarithmic in their progression through their resistance range.  The first 30 % of rotation give you very fine control over very minute changes in volume and power.  The next thirty percent of rotation apply a little more power so that at the end of the first sixty percent of rotation you're accessing maybe 20% of the amp's power on tap.  Remember, the output volume is still wholly dependent upon the input signal volume.  Quiet is still quiet whether you're at 0 volume or 60% volume.  The last 30% of the rotation of the volume knob gives access to the rest of the amplifier power.  You basically would never need to go there.

Huh? Last time I checked audio pots were logarithmic because that was how decibels worked, and also that in a logarithmic function, the function varies more at the start, not less.

If your amp is wired in such a way that you have no fine control at the beginning of the volume range, then it's poorly designed.  Is your pot wired backwards?
As others have noted, one would not need the gain factor for the Grados that the Lyr brings to the table, but I bet it's still very controllable and not unstable even with the Grados.  If the grados are the ONLY headphone you'll ever own, then maybe you should buy the Grado amp powered by a 9v transistor radio battery.  The log curve you depict is the human ear's sensitivity to sound pressure levels.

 

[Pale Rider]

I wouldn't pay more for fancy colors and options we don't need I think that goes against the whole philosophy behind the Schitt amps.  I think the fact that such quality amps are made by hand in the USA for a price that is competitive to amps made in China is way cooler than having fancy colors and options.  IMO.

 


This, in a nutshell. Haven't had much itch to add to my rig, until the LCD-2 came along, and this strikes me as a very good way to do so. If the Lyr is as good as its hype sounds like it could be......... 

 

[Happy Camper]

How can it fail?
 
Don't release for another month but 300 posts of speculation have made people recommend it to newbs. Mass marketing at it's best.