[DemonicLemming]

Tube talk here dilutes a prospective purchaser from being able to read what a stock standard Lyr sounds like. It is already difficult enough to search threads without users deliberately mixing topics.

If a person hasn't been able to come up with an opinion of the Lyr with stock tubes after 94 pages, I don't think there's much that can be done to help him. Hell, most of these "Item XXX Impressions!" threads wind up being so long, they're useless, because concise useful opinions and data are buried so deep in irrelevant stuff, it would take days to sift through a single thread to come out with a good idea of what that piece of equipment is like.

Quick snippet for anyone looking for a concise opinion of the Lyr:

Using the stock JJ E88CC tubes, powerful, reasonably transparent and uncolored; slightly curtailed at both the high and low end, as well as being slightly compressed, but overall pleasant and unassuming.

Using some of the more popular tubes - expansive, resolving, very good lows and mids, sweet but not shimmery highs, and removed from an overly syrupy/lush tube sound without being clinical and razor-edged like solid state.

A broad plethora of good tubes with a wide spectrum of tube characteristics will allow people with markedly different preferences to still enjoy the same amp just by rolling different tubes. For the price, an absolute sledgehammer of an amp that would still be fairly priced were it half again the retail cost.

 

[USAudio]

Quote:

If a person hasn't been able to come up with an opinion of the Lyr with stock tubes after 94 pages, I don't think there's much that can be done to help him. Hell, most of these "Item XXX Impressions!" threads wind up being so long, they're useless, because concise useful opinions and data are buried so deep in irrelevant stuff, it would take days to sift through a single thread to come out with a good idea of what that piece of equipment is like.

Question/Suggestion:  I see we can give positive feedback on individual posts by clicking on the green thumbs-up in the lower right-hand corner of each post ... is it possible to sort a thread's posts by thumbs-up count?  If you could sort the top thumbs-up threads to the top, that might be useful and filter out a lof of the fluff. 
Sometimes the context might be confusing but you could always return to the original thread to get the context.
 
 

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Quote:

Tube talk here dilutes a prospective purchaser from being able to read what a stock standard Lyr sounds like. It is already difficult enough to search threads without users deliberately mixing topics.

If a person hasn't been able to come up with an opinion of the Lyr with stock tubes after 94 pages, I don't think there's much that can be done to help him. Hell, most of these "Item XXX Impressions!" threads wind up being so long, they're useless, because concise useful opinions and data are buried so deep in irrelevant stuff, it would take days to sift through a single thread to come out with a good idea of what that piece of equipment is like.

Quick snippet for anyone looking for a concise opinion of the Lyr:

Using the stock JJ E88CC tubes, powerful, reasonably transparent and uncolored; slightly curtailed at both the high and low end, as well as being slightly compressed, but overall pleasant and unassuming.

Using some of the more popular tubes - expansive, resolving, very good lows and mids, sweet but not shimmery highs, and removed from an overly syrupy/lush tube sound without being clinical and razor-edged like solid state.

A broad plethora of good tubes with a wide spectrum of tube characteristics will allow people with markedly different preferences to still enjoy the same amp just by rolling different tubes. For the price, an absolute sledgehammer of an amp that would still be fairly priced were it half again the retail cost.

Well said!  My experience with the stock JJ tubes is more positive than what is bolded above.  I hear no curtailment of either end of the sonic spectrum.  When operating in spec, the amp is flat with a frequency response: 2Hz-200KHz, -3dB.  I know NOBODY can hear at either end of that spectrum.
 
 

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Question/Suggestion:  I see we can give positive feedback on individual posts by clicking on the green thumbs-up in the lower right-hand corner of each post ... is it possible to sort a thread's posts by thumbs-up count?  If you could sort the top thumbs-up threads to the top, that might be useful and filter out a lof of the fluff. 
Sometimes the context might be confusing but you could always return to the original thread to get the context.
 
 

I have not been able to find a way of filtering by thumbs up votes.  yet.
 
 

 

[HK_sends]

Well, you did (I believe) mention letting them burn in for a couple (or was it three?) hundred hours... 

-HK sends
 
Quote:

Well said!  My experience with the stock JJ tubes is more positive than what is bolded above.  I hear no curtailment of either end of the sonic spectrum.  When operating in spec, the amp is flat with a frequency response: 2Hz-200KHz, -3dB.  I know NOBODY can hear at either end of that spectrum.
 
 

 

 

[USAudio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwkarth /img/forum/go_quote.gif
... My experience with the stock JJ tubes is more positive than what is bolded above.  I hear no curtailment of either end of the sonic spectrum. ...

+1
My impressions mirror yours.

 

[zilch0md]

Quote:

[snip]

Quick snippet for anyone looking for a concise opinion of the Lyr:

Using the stock JJ E88CC tubes, powerful, reasonably transparent and uncolored; slightly curtailed at both the high and low end, as well as being slightly compressed, but overall pleasant and unassuming.

Using some of the more popular tubes - expansive, resolving, very good lows and mids, sweet but not shimmery highs, and removed from an overly syrupy/lush tube sound without being clinical and razor-edged like solid state.

A broad plethora of good tubes with a wide spectrum of tube characteristics will allow people with markedly different preferences to still enjoy the same amp just by rolling different tubes. For the price, an absolute sledgehammer of an amp that would still be fairly priced were it half again the retail cost.

Well said!  
 
(Whew!  I'm glad that's over!)
 
The END!    

 

[floydfan33]

Hoping someone can help me here.
 
Just received my Schiit Lyr, and am using my Nuforce Icon HDP as DAC and preamp for it.
 
Current setup is:
 
Yamaha CD-S1000 > SPDIF > HDP > RCA out > RCA in > Lyr
 
My question, as I have never used a preamp, is how do I set my volume control? Do I max the HDP, and use the Lyr volume, or max the Lyr, and use the HDP volume?
 
Thanks.

 

[DemonicLemming]

Definitely wouldn't max the Lyr's volume - given its output capability, there's a not-insignificant danger of accidentally smoking your headphones, ears, or both if someone inadvertently bumps the pre-amp volume while you're listening to music.
 
For pre-amping, I normally adjust the level on the pre-amp to give me enough volume in the first 25% of the power amp pot rotation for normal listening.  There may be better methods, but this has always worked for me.
 
Quote:

Hoping someone can help me here.
 
Just received my Schiit Lyr, and am using my Nuforce Icon HDP as DAC and preamp for it.
 
Current setup is:
 
Yamaha CD-S1000 > SPDIF > HDP > RCA out > RCA in > Lyr
 
My question, as I have never used a preamp, is how do I set my volume control? Do I max the HDP, and use the Lyr volume, or max the Lyr, and use the HDP volume?
 
Thanks.

 
 

 

[DemonicLemming]

Just to hop back and clarify a bit (bad wording on my part) - I don't think the stock tubes have a cut-off of the lows and highs (re-reading what I wrote, that's what it seems like I was saying to me), but rather they're not quite as distinct and controlled with the JJs as they are with some NOS tubes.  Frequency extremes are still good with the stock tubes, but I found that NOS tubes gave a bit better bass control and texture, and more vocal enunciation and clarity on higher frequencies, especially with female vocals.
 
If I did have to go back to the stock tubes though, I wouldn't be upset - the Lyr is still a great amp with new production valves.
 
Quote:

Well said!  My experience with the stock JJ tubes is more positive than what is bolded above.  I hear no curtailment of either end of the sonic spectrum.  When operating in spec, the amp is flat with a frequency response: 2Hz-200KHz, -3dB.  I know NOBODY can hear at either end of that spectrum.
 

 
 

 

[jamato8]

Quote:

Hoping someone can help me here.
 
Just received my Schiit Lyr, and am using my Nuforce Icon HDP as DAC and preamp for it.
 
Current setup is:
 
Yamaha CD-S1000 > SPDIF > HDP > RCA out > RCA in > Lyr
 
My question, as I have never used a preamp, is how do I set my volume control? Do I max the HDP, and use the Lyr volume, or max the Lyr, and use the HDP volume?
 
Thanks.

I could look up the spec for the Nuforce but can't you just go from the analog out of the dac to the Lyr? I wouldn't want something else in the signal chain as the less the better. Also by having one volume control partially used and the other volume control the same way, you have two volume controls in the signal path, which isn't a great thing either. I have done it but after a while I can tell when going back to a more direct signal path that there is better transparency and quality with the simpler signal path. IMO
 
 

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Hoping someone can help me here.
 
Just received my Schiit Lyr, and am using my Nuforce Icon HDP as DAC and preamp for it.
 
Current setup is:
 
Yamaha CD-S1000 > SPDIF > HDP > RCA out > RCA in > Lyr
 
My question, as I have never used a preamp, is how do I set my volume control? Do I max the HDP, and use the Lyr volume, or max the Lyr, and use the HDP volume?
 
Thanks.

To start, set the volume control on the HDP to 70-80% of maximum and then control the listening volume with the Lyr.  The Lyr expects a standard line level output from the DAC, so that's what you need to provide for it.
 

 

[grokit]

So there's no way to defeat the attenuation of the HDP's rca outs?

 

[rsgladwin85]

I finally have received my Lyr in Afghanistan today.  All I can say is "Auditory Bliss".  I'm not going to say that it's better than much more expensive amps.  What I will say is that for the price this amp is worlds ahead of what I had hoped for.  The sound it produces sends chills over my body (my ultimate test for a piece of audio gear).  Zakk Wylde's guitar solos will stand the hair on your neck at attention.  I have never heard Adele's beautiful voice so clearly presented.  While this amp may be warm, it's very pleasant and I feel as though I'm molded into my chair from the place it puts me.  Overall the separation in instruments is good as you can clearly distinguish them.  Detail is good as I'm hearing things that I haven't been able to hear in a while with the gear I have here in Afghan.  I'm not going to go into a full blown review as I have not had enough time with the amp, and also I'm in Afghan where I'm limited to resources. 
 
I would however like to say thank you to Jason giving us this wonderful amp at such an outstanding price.  I also have to speak for Jason's customer service.  I wrote in a question to the customer service number that wasn't about anything technical, just about the shipping address I had submitted, and he responded to me himself.  That's very refreshing.
 
On a side note as has been stated elsewhere you aren't supposed to use audio equipment through a computer UPS as the created sinewaves will interfere with the sound.  I can now attest to this.  I plugged it into one of the Battery sockets in my ups and was instantly greeted with a nice buzz.  I moved it over to one of the Surge only outlets and the buzz disappeared.  It's good to have some confirmation on what i've heard, but not yet experienced. 
 
Thanks again Jason.

 

[USAudio]

Quote:

I finally have received my Lyr in Afghanistan today. ... 

I'm assuming you're in the military - If so, thanks for your service!  You guys have a tough and probably often thankless job over there but we appreciate your service to your country.