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hodjgy,
I saw where you were thinking about getting a Valhalla amp and I've read your positive comments about the Asgard. I'm trying to decide between the Asgard and Valhalla to power my HD600s. Which amp in your opinion would be one to get? I would be using a Cambridge Audio 640C V.2 cd player as my source. Thanks for any insights you can offer.
I haven't owned either Valhalla or Lyr, or even HD600, however given experience with Lyr, other SS amps, and HD650 I think I can probably give some input.
The sound will be very different between either of those and comes down to the bigger philosophy of "do I want tube or SS sound?" Neither is inherently "better" in that regard, it will come down purely to preference.
Both will of course power HD600, arguably higher voltage amps like Valhalla and Lyr will pair better with the impedance, but that is irrelevant compared to the sonic signature you want. Over HD650, HD600 is a far more neutral and flat headphone, teetering toward analytical. If you want to accentuate the drier, detailed, analytical nature of that headphone, SS would be the better pair for you to keep it as clean and true to source as possible. If you want to "warm it up" a bit...smooth out some mids, roll the highs and lows off a bit more roundly, the tube amp would be the better bet. You'll find an equal number of fans of either philosophy.
And of course there's always Lyr which does a bit of both. It's detailed due to the SS side, but has a warming, easy to listen to effect from the tube side. Compared to an SS amp though it's still much smoother, which I like. It's all personal preference.