[Soundsgoodtome]

Anyone have an HE4 handy and can see how it pairs with their Vali?

 

[Happy Camper]

Anyone have an HE4 handy and can see how it pairs with their Vali?

 

[kstuart]

I find it surprising people are comparing the Vali to the Lyr since the power output is much higher on the latter... yet it sounds almost as good?

Vali:
32 ohms: 650mW RMS per channelMax
50 ohms: 550mW RMS per channelMax
300 ohms: 220mW RMS per channelMax
600 ohms: 115mW RMS per channelMax

LYR:
32 ohms: 6.0W RMS per channelMax
50 ohms: 4.0W RMS per channelMax
300 ohms: 660mW RMS per channelMax
600 ohms: 330mW RMS per channelMax

Sound quality is not proportional to power.   A 700 horsepower car may not drive as well as a 200 horsepower car, depending on all the other factors.
 
Presumably, the high power of the Lyr is mainly aimed at very power hungry headphones like the HE6.

 

[Krem]

Subscribed.

 

[MickeyVee]

Still waiting. I ordered mine on release day early in the day.  it shipped a couple of days later and I was hoping that I'd have it for the weekend.. especially since they have already been delivered to the UK.  Oh well, next week sometime.  
My source will be the Woo WA7 DAC RCA out so I should easily be able to com are the two amp sections.  It will be fun.  Will eventually be using it with the Dragonfly.  In the mean time, Looking forward to reading all the initial impressions.

 

 

[genclaymore]

I hoping some one who has a vali that also have a DT880 premium 600 to show up, because i wanna know how the two sound together.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Sound quality is not proportional to power.   A 700 horsepower car may not drive as well as a 200 horsepower car, depending on all the other factors.

Presumably, the high power of the Lyr is mainly aimed at very power hungry headphones like the HE6.

Aren't the majority of planar magnetics considered to be power hungry? If these do well with higher tier, power hungry headphones, is the idea that the user is missing out on greater sq by not going higher with the amp be void? Let's say he500 or he4. Not too familiar with the LCD lineup but its to my understanding those do well with power as well (reading up on the Lyr).

I'm seriously considering getting a better amp to add to my DAC/AMP for my he400 and possibly an he500 or he4 in the future. Something tells me a Lyr or something in that range is what I want.. but if a Vali is the little amp that could, well then.

 

[MattTCG]

Sound quality is not proportional to power.   A 700 horsepower car may not drive as well as a 200 horsepower car, depending on all the other factors.

Presumably, the high power of the Lyr is mainly aimed at very power hungry headphones like the HE6.

The Lyr is just enough for the he4&6. Some would say not really enough. I would be in that camp.

 

[Eric_C]

  I'd love to hear what you thought about the Vali paired with DT 880/250-ohms.

It's pretty good. Sound is quite clear, detailed; maybe only slightly tilted towards warm-of-neutral; bass could be deeper, but if I never heard my headphones through better amps I wouldn't really notice I guess.
 
Definitely quite loud, btw. Volume is barely at 10 o'clock--bearing in mind that I don't listen to my music loud--and I think that at 11 o'clock it's uncomfortably loud.

 

[gideon228]

  It hasn't been anywhere near 200 hours since release, let along shipping time.  If yours was shipped the first day, and you received them overnight, then at the point you posted, at best you would have 92 hours.  I suspect a math error.

Good pickup... It was 20h. Time flies when you're listening to music through the Vali

 

[jbarrentine]

Regarding my previous post about my Vali being 'left heavy', which I was unsure of, I've listened more, specifically to video sources and determined it's most definitely not. Voice in video files is very properly centered. I'm simply not used to the dynamics of music though a much nicer amp than I had before. 
 
I love this thing. I have never been to meets or had experience with the array of product that many of you have so my opinion is more the average man's but at $120 I can't imagine it getting better than this. 

 

[JoeKickass]

Originally Posted by FallenKnight71 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Will give impressions after burn in.  What would people suggest as a good safe way to burn the Vali in?

Mine seemed to enjoy pink noise last night, I did 20 minutes on and 2 minutes off for about 10 hours. Sounded great in the morning!

 

[kstuart]

 

Sound quality is not proportional to power.   A 700 horsepower car may not drive as well as a 200 horsepower car, depending on all the other factors.

Presumably, the high power of the Lyr is mainly aimed at very power hungry headphones like the HE6.

Aren't the majority of planar magnetics considered to be power hungry? If these do well with higher tier, power hungry headphones, is the idea that the user is missing out on greater sq by not going higher with the amp be void? Let's say he500 or he4. Not too familiar with the LCD lineup but its to my understanding those do well with power as well (reading up on the Lyr).

I'm seriously considering getting a better amp to add to my DAC/AMP for my he400 and possibly an he500 or he4 in the future. Something tells me a Lyr or something in that range is what I want.. but if a Vali is the little amp that could, well then.

Okay, you didn't mention planar specifically in the original post, and they indeed do better with more power, although I find that the power rating of the output is not the whole story., you still have to try the pairing.   Yes, some people use the Emotiva $200 mini speaker amp connected to planars like the HE500.
 
But for dynamic headphones like the Senn 598 or the Sony MA900s, the power rating of the Vali should be plenty enough (in fact there was recently a positive impression on the Vali with the HD800s).

 

[kstuart]

Originally Posted by FallenKnight71 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
  What would people suggest as a good safe way to burn the Vali in?

If it is convenient, the simplest way is to just take an iPod (or equivalent) plug it into the Vali inputs, plug headphones into the output, and put all of that in a closet (assuming that you can get a power cord in there).  I think that since the equipment is for playing music, then playing music through it is guaranteed to work as a break-in.
 
In my case, I have a bedside Internet table radio with a headphone jack, so I connect that to the amp, and then put the headphones in a box with some clothes, so that it doesn't wake me up.

 
I did a web search, and interestingly, the Schiit Bitfrost DAC is notorious for needing 100 hours minimum, and taking two months of use to really get to its best.  The culprit is thought to be "Teflon capacitors" (I'm not sure if Vali has any).

 

[jimmers]

Aren't the majority of planar magnetics considered to be power hungry?

According to Innerfidelity's measurements HE400 only needs a fifth of the power required by the K701 for the same SPL (0.33mW for 90dB)
 
HE-6 however ...