Can you please
elaborate on what you mean by "The difference is like night and day now". ...
I am not saying I am unhappy but then come to realise that the improvements in DAC/AMP bring is very very minimal and people just use words that mislead many people. ...
Just for my understanding and for other's benifit as there is very limited comparison between Schiit products vs Vio. I have never had listed to Schiit products and I am not going that way either but may down size my gear as improvements are minor with Amps and DACs where you have taken care of pairing of Brighter HP with warmer gear or Warmer headphone with brighter DAC/AMP which I do believe is the most important (but improvement in sound quality and characteristics from $500 gear to $2500 DAC is very very minimal once you do brighter and warmer pairing like Mojo with K812 and not LCDs and LCDs with Hugo which is bit brighter kind)
I can try, but I'm a n00bish reviewer and just starting to come to trust my ears. No prob on calling me out on this, with this, you've moved me a bit to try harder
and I think I've grown a bit in my audiophilia with this exercise. I didn't know that the comparisons between Schiit gear and Violetric gear was so rare.
First off, I'm not using any power conditioners, just relying on the internal power conditioning of my gear. And, so before when I was evaluating my gear I did:
Bifrost Uber unbal -> Lyr 2 min gain with Amperex 7308 vintage gold pin tubes -> T90
v850 bal -> V281 -12db gain -> T90 (unbalanced of course)
I made an earlier post in this thread lamenting that I couldn't hear any differences in this equipment comparison. The night and day difference to me that I heard this time was indeed subjective, I was simply surprised at the difference that I was noticing. The main differences that I noted was the the Schiit stack sounded warmer but less detailed and murkier. Before I go into the details, let me clarify that I've also now compared:
Bifrost Uber unbal -> v281 -> balanced HE-1000
v850 balanced -> v281 -> balanced HE-1000
I attenuated the volume control on the v850 to about halfway between 2 and 3 o'clock to match it to the Bifrost Uber. Since I haven't been able to hear any differences in prior tests, I just used Carmina Burana： O Fortruna from the London Philharmonic Orchestra as the test track. Try as I may, I was unable to identify any difference in the sound either in tone or detail or soundstage between the Bifrost and the v850. Both seemed flawless and the same to each other. So the difference I was hearing must have been between the Lyr 2 and v281.
For this test, to be fair, I did:
v850 unbal -> Lyr 2 same tubes -> T90
v850 bal -> v281 -> T90 unbal
and I restored the volume of the v850 to max. I equalized the audio between the two amps with the online tone generator and a spl meter. I used more test tracks from the London Philharmonic Orchestra for this test. This comparison with further critial listening was very difficult; before wasn't nearly as indepth of a test but was just casual listening. For the first part of the test I continued with the London Philharmonic Orchestra recordings. For the second part of the test I listened to rock music.
I noticed a touch more presence and fullness of the mid and upper bass from the Lyr 2 and it was overall warmer than the v281, but the v281's had better extension into the lower seismic region. The Lyr 2 had an overall a slightly veiled characteristic, while the v281 was more transparent. The mids and treble punched through the bass on the v281, maybe this is a better transient response and attack. The treble was noticeably more detailed and more clearly rendered on the v281 too, with better extension.
In the busier parts of the tracks, there were also better dyanmics of volume on the v281 vs Lyr 2, and the separation of the instruments was superior on the v281 as well. As far as soundstage goes, I'm a really poor judge here, even with orchestral recordings. For this aspect of sound I whipped out the HE-1000's with the unbalanced cable. All I can say is that it felt more like I was in the room with the music with the v281 than it did with the Lyr 2. Perhaps the Lyr 2 seemed more intimate and less airy than the v281.
Overall, I preferred the v281 to the Lyr 2 for the orchestra tracks.
I found that the Lyr 2 provided an easier listen to many of the rock songs I tried, loud and compressed. I listened to Foo Fighters, A Perfect Circle, A Flock of Seagulls, and Rush songs. The v281 was colder, more analytical, had greater attack, and was less forgiving than the Lyr 2. Bass had slightly more thump and faster decay on the v281, but again mid and upper bass was warmer and louder on the Lyr 2. Male vocals seemed slightly clearer and more distinct on the v281 than the Lyr 2 (I been back and forth on this one a two or three times), especially in the presence of other loud instruments, and the vocals were also slightly more natural on the v281. Treble was more clearer and crisper more rendered on the v281 but sometimes earsplitting on the cymbals.
Which do I prefer for rock? It depends on the track. The more compressed and louder the recording, the more I prefer the Lyr 2. Overall, the difference was more slight than I initially thought, but with an edge towards the v281. Keep in mind that for the entire test I only used the left unbalanced output with the v281.
