[Gym_Turtle]

Hello!

I wanted to know if anyone could help me with choosing headphones and an amp. I've been looking at the Amiron home and Schiit Lyr 2 lately and wanted to see if anyone has had any experiences using both of them together or individually. Also whether or not anyone has a recommendation outside of those two.

I have a very odd choice of music, I listen to blues, rock (of just about any kind), progressive to heavy metal, and occasionally I will play some video games (RPGs and FPSs mainly).

I'll be using the headphones mainly at home, so being open-back doesn't matter. I'll also probably be wearing them to decently long stretches of time (2-6 hours). I also listen to music at a medium volume to, at times, hear things around me aside from the music. I prefer a balanced/laidback, airy sound signature with a slight emphasis on treble. I also prefer if the headphones have detachable cables, as I've had the misfortune of ruining a lot of cables throughout the years and might have to get replacement cables after two/three years. My budget for the headphones and amp are about 1000 USD.

-GT

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

I don't have experience with the Lyr 2 but had the Amiron Home for quite a while paired with my Feliks Audio Espressivo, it sells for around the same price as the Lyr 2 and is hand build in Poland.

The Lyr 2 is a hybrid design that outputs a lot more power than the Espressivo, which is great if you are looking at upgrading to power hungry planars in the future, but if you are mainly going to be using it with the Amiron Home the Espressivo is an all tube OTL amp that is not slow and thick sounding like most people think tube amps are.

 

[Gym_Turtle]

I don't have experience with the Lyr 2 but had the Amiron Home for quite a while paired with my Feliks Audio Espressivo, it sells for around the same price as the Lyr 2 and is hand build in Poland.

The Lyr 2 is a hybrid design that outputs a lot more power than the Espressivo, which is great if you are looking at upgrading to power hungry planars in the future, but if you are mainly going to be using it with the Amiron Home the Espressivo is an all tube OTL amp that is not slow and thick sounding like most people think tube amps are.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll try to check it out! How would you describe the sound signature of the Espressivo?

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll try to check it out! How would you describe the sound signature of the Espressivo?

In stock form it is quite neutral with a slight hint of tube warmth, and a really solid amp for the price. I've had mine for 2 and a half years now and still really enjoy it.

You can tube roll easily and for quite little money, if you want more warmth you can get cheap Voskhod 6922 tubes. I currently have Jan 5670w tubes in adaptors, and had someone compare it to the Sennheiser HDVD800 and say it was even more open and airy with as good instrument separation.

Bought some of these as the power tubes too, also work very will bringing out a little extra detail: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6N6P-I-EC...038216?hash=item3f71ca8848:g:AKYAAOSw4CFY5hyq

Here is mine:

 

[Gym_Turtle]

In stock form it is quite neutral with a slight hint of tube warmth, and a really solid amp for the price. I've had mine for 2 and a half years now and still really enjoy it.

You can tube roll easily and for quite little money, if you want more warmth you can get cheap Voskhod 6922 tubes. I currently have Jan 5670w tubes in adaptors, and had someone compare it to the Sennheiser HDVD800 and say it was even more open and airy with as good instrument separation.

Bought some of these as the power tubes too, also work very will bringing out a little extra detail: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6N6P-I-EC...038216?hash=item3f71ca8848:g:AKYAAOSw4CFY5hyq

Here is mine:

Thanks for the tube recommendations! I've seen some people describe the Lyr 2 the same way you describe the Espressivo, so I'll definitely check out.

 

[FumblingFoo]

I've had experience with the Lyr 2 and the character does change with the tubes (you'll definitely want to switch or "tube roll" from the stock tubes), which makes it quite a fun amp. For example, when I switched from some Amperex tubes to the Russian 6h23p tubes, the sound became quite lean, clinical, bright, and lighter in the bass, especially the mid-bass. Not much else I can remember because its been a while since I switched tubes.

 

[Gym_Turtle]

I've had experience with the Lyr 2 and the character does change with the tubes (you'll definitely want to switch or "tube roll" from the stock tubes), which makes it quite a fun amp. For example, when I switched from some Amperex tubes to the Russian 6h23p tubes, the sound became quite lean, clinical, bright, and lighter in the bass, especially the mid-bass. Not much else I can remember because its been a while since I switched tubes.

How would you describe the sound of the Lyr 2 with stock tubes or solid state tubes (if you have them)?

 

[FumblingFoo]

The sound is smeared, blurred, congested, and tinny, with sub-par resolution and relatively poor separation of the instruments. Really a bit worse than I thought it would be (just tried the stock tubes now). Sound does improve a bit as they warm up, though.

 

[Gym_Turtle]

The sound is smeared, blurred, congested, and tinny, with sub-par resolution and relatively poor separation of the instruments. Really a bit worse than I thought it would be (just tried the stock tubes now). Sound does improve a bit as they warm up, though.

I might end up going with the Espressivo, as amp-related audio equipment is pretty difficult to obtain where I live and shipping is pretty expensive.

 

[FumblingFoo]

Ok, excellent

 

[Gym_Turtle]

Looking at all the prices for these items makes me realise just how awful the Canadian dollar is; about $1400 for all the items.