[MrScary]

Quote:

FWIW, I have run my Grado's off the Lyr with no issues.  It's not all low impedance high sensitivity headphones.
 
Just curious, was there an action associated with the blowing of the drivers?  Turning it on/off?  High dynamic music?  Not accusing, just trying to identify the commonalities.

They have DC offset bad power in their houses this will cause the phones to blow its not low impedance sensitivity headphones I have ran many low impedance sensititivy headphones with no problems as many others have

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

The Lyr blew out my Edition 8 drivers as well, that's one of the reasons why I returned it. As Schiit warns on their webpage, they won't be responsible if you blow up your headphones; that's what Jason effectively told Peter (MH) and myself in response. Luckily mine were still under warranty as well, as are all Edition 8s at this point as they were released in July 2009 with 2-year coverage in the US.
 
Obviously both Ultrasone and Schiit should post some disclaimers and warnings about this particular pairing; I sincerely hope the D7000 is an isolated issue. I did not turn my Ed8 up to a loud level at all, and it was with NOS Amperex gold pin 6922s which are fine tubes. The Lyr is a bad choice for low impedance, high sensitivity dynamics, and after this experience I don't even want my Ed8 in the same building as a Lyr.
 
It is certain that as time marches on there will be more to this story 

 
I'm sorry, but I call BS here.  The Lyr's servos would prevent any DC offset in the output.
Ultrasones have back to back diodes across the drivers to protect them from overload.  Had your ED8 been modified?
 
I hate internet rumors.
 
 

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

They have DC offset bad power in their houses this will cause the phones to blow its not low impedance sensitivity headphones I have ran many low impedance sensititivy headphones with no problems as many others have

What?  Just what?  Bad power causes DC offset?  What?  Where did you get this information from?  That's impossible!!!
 
 

 

[jronan2]

After a long wait, I finally received my Lyr. Dam this sucker is a lot heavier than I thought it would be, and smaller. Build design is stellar, this thing looks like you can throw it down a flight of stairs and still work, not that I would try that. As of now, I am running the Yulong D100 -> Lyr -> DT 990/600..even with no burn in and stock tubes, and some crappy interconnects and stock power cords. I like the sound of this set up. Harsh treble in the 990's....where? Not to my ears at all at least. Not going to even try my D7000's on the Lyr I love it to much with with my other set up. I can't wait to get my hands on an ortho down the road.

 

[leesure]

Musical choice CAN matter.  I've seen more than one pair of speakers blown by climax of the 1812 Overture.
 
Turning it off shouldn't have as much effect as turning it opn, but the latter, regardless of whether the music is playing, can create a spike that I guess might blow sensitive drivers.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Hey guys,
 
Sorry that some of you seem to be having problems with Lyr. Out of the literally hundreds of Lyrs shipped, I have personally been contacted by two owners (both mentioned in this thread,) who have had problems with low impedance, high sensitivity headphones. Since I was not in the room with them when they had problems, I can't comment on setup/use/etc. 
 
So, here's what I know:
 
1. Lyrs are DC coupled, so if you have *any* DC coming into Lyr from your source, there can be a turn-on/turn-off thump as the DC servo struggles to compensate for it--especially at Lyr's high gain. If you are not 100% certain you don't have DC from your source (as in, the source is DC coupled and may be out of adjustment/servo may be funky/don't have a voltmeter,) you may want to play it safe and not plug in your headphones until after you turn on the Lyr.
 
2. Lyrs are 100% final listen-tested on our line with Sennheiser HD650s, the same headphone that has tested thousands of Schiit amps. The HD650s go through the full turn-on/turn-off cycle for every Lyr. Those headphones have seen at least 500 turn-on/turn-off cycles on Lyr. No problems there.
 
3. If you do have problems, I encourage you to talk to us. We don't bite, and we're very helpful. Ask anyone who's talked to us.
 
All the best,
Jason
 
 
 

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

 
I'm sorry, but I call BS here.  The Lyr's servos would prevent any DC offset in the output.
Ultrasones have back to back diodes across the drivers to protect them from overload.  Had your ED8 been modified?
 
I hate internet rumors.

It's not a rumor, it's a fact. If you think that myself or Macedonian Hero is lying that's your problem, but I would implore you to plug an Edition 8 into a Lyr for yourself so you can make a more informed commentary. Just remember that Shiit won't take responsibility if you blow them up as we did, they have issued a warning and so have we. If you want to criticize us rather than trying it for yourself, then I call BS on you. Notice how Jason hasn't addressed the Ultrasone issue, but his response to both of us was the same. As I have already said, it's a fine amp for some applications but not appropriate at all or others. You can cite electronic principles all day long (and I do respect your knowledge of them), but our actual experience is the veritas in this situation. My Ed8 was completely stock and without issues as was Peter's, and in my case I did not notice any "thump".
 
"Make no mistake: even though Lyr is the same size as Asgard and Valhalla, it’s one of the most powerful headphone amplifiers you can buy. We will not be responsible if you blow up your headphones with it!"

 

[leesure]

grokit...I think he was referring to the 'DC Offset' comments that were suggesting that there is some inherint defect in the design of the Lyr. 
 
I don't doubt that you had an issue...that's why I was asking for the specifics so we can all learn how to avoid issues in the future.

 

[grokit]

I don't know about DC offset and therefore have not commented on that. I do know that I've never had any issues with the power in my house before and I have run a wide variety of audio equipment.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

It's not a rumor, it's a fact. If you think that myself or Macedonian Hero is lying that's your problem, but I would implore you to plug an Edition 8 into a Lyr for yourself so you can make a more informed commentary. Just remember that Shiit won't take responsibility if you blow them up as we did, they have issued a warning and so have we. If you want to criticize us rather than trying it for yourself, then I call BS on you. Notice how Jason hasn't addressed the Ultrasone issue, but his response to both of us was the same. As I have already said, it's a fine amp for some applications but not appropriate at all or others. You can cite electronic principles all day long but our actual experience is the veritas in this situation. My Ed8 was completely stock and without issues as was Peter's, and in my case I did not notice any "thump".
 
"Make no mistake: even though Lyr is the same size as Asgard and Valhalla, it’s one of the most powerful headphone amplifiers you can buy. We will not be responsible if you blow up your headphones with it!"

Hey, I really am sorry you had troubles, but I want to make sure we don't throw rocks in all directions indiscriminately.  You know how rumors are.  They take on a life of their own even when there's no truth to them.  I really am shocked that the drivers in the Ultrasones are that sensitive.  The Ultrasone headphone must have a much more limited dynamic range than I thought.  I've got a couple of Ultrasone headphones and although I've never had any troubles with mine, it seems almost inconceivable that they would pop from a turn on thump as the servo settles.  I would encourage you to check your source carefully to see if there's any DC offset in its output.   I assume your Lyr was not found to be responsible for the problem (as in any detectable DC offset in its output.)
 
If your Ultrasones were stock, then Ultrasone should replace them for free, as their demise almost had to have been due to a manufacturing defect in the driver.
 
The cautionary note from Schiit is to warn boneheads not to crank it up too much.  I was not meaning to imply you were complicit in any such shenanigans.  
 

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Grokit (and all),
 
There seems to be confusion about DC offset. DC offset does not come from your AC line (at least not in a properly designed component, I can't imagine how poor a design would have to be to pass DC from the AC wall outlet to its own output.) That isn't to say your AC line might not have DC on it, but the transformer will take that out of the equation. Of course, the transformer may not be thrilled at the DC load, but that's another ball of wax. It shouldn't pass DC through to the output. 
 
What I was referring to was DC offset from your source (CD player, DAC, computer.)
 
If you're using an uber-cool, hand-tweaked, DC-coupled, no-DC-servo source, guess what? It probably has *some* DC offset, because no matter how dialed-in it was at the factory, it will drift over time.
 
If you're using a DC-coupled source with DC servo, well, some DC servos work better than others. And sometimes they fail. That's a very bad day.
 
If you're cap-coupled, like from a cheapie iPod or CD player, you're probably fine. Sometimes caps leak, yeah, but that's rare.  
 
The problem with DC on the input of Lyr is that it will be amplified, until the DC servo corrects for it. If the DC level is high enough, the servo may not be able to correct for it.
 
Oh, and Ultrasones? The reason I haven't commented on them is that we have no direct experience with them, so anything I say would be complete speculation. We did test Grokit's Lyr when it came back and it had no significant DC offset at the output (<10mv.)
 
I hope that helps!
Jason 

 

[MrScary]

Hey, I really am sorry you had troubles, but I want to make sure we don't throw rocks in all directions indiscriminately.  You know how rumors are.  They take on a life of their own even when there's no truth to them.  I really am shocked that the drivers in the Ultrasones are that sensitive.  The Ultrasone headphone must have a much more limited dynamic range than I thought.  I've got a couple of Ultrasone headphones and although I've never had any troubles with mine, it seems almost inconceivable that they would pop from a turn on thump as the servo settles.  I would encourage you to check your source carefully to see if there's any DC offset in its output.   I assume your Lyr was not found to be responsible for the problem (as in any detectable DC offset in its output.)
 
If your Ultrasones were stock, then Ultrasone should replace them for free, as their demise almost had to have been due to a manufacturing defect in the driver.
 
The cautionary not from Schiit is to warn boneheads not to crank it up too much.  I was not meaning to imply you were complicit in any such shenanigans.  
 

2 people out of hundreds now tell me where the problem is?

 

[grokit]

Well if my drivers were defective, then Peter's had the exact same defect. Anyone who is in doubt of this incompatibility should try it for themselves, at their own risk of course. I certainly won't be doing it again 

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

2 people out of hundreds now tell me where the problem is?

I think it's with your attitude. How many people out of these hundreds that you are referring to have tried an Edition 8 with the Lyr? Two that I know of, and I haven't heard anyone chime in that hasn't had a problem with that combo so it's two to zero so far.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

I think it's with your attitude. How many people out of these hundreds that you are referring to have tried an Edition 8 with the Lyr? Two that I know of, and I haven't heard anyone chime in that hasn't had a problem with that combo so it's two to zero so far.

Honestly, not intending to deflect "blame" in any particular direction, the two events with the ED8, would make me far more suspicious of issues with them, not the amps they happened to be plugged in to.  It's really quick and easy to determine if there's any DC offset in your system, so that question can be eliminated in an instant, or confirmed, for that matter.  Once you know those the facts, then you know where to focus your attention or suspicions.