Lyr 3 Discussion Thread

I need to make an amendment to my earlier comments on tubes. I had previously passed judgement on the stock Russian and dismissed missed it, preferring the new TS tube. Well, I actually got a few tubes mixed up and I've not tried the Russian until today. Much to my delight, this tube is pretty good actually. It's doing nice things particularly with AFO and ETHER. I need to burn it in for a few days and see if it can get any better. Pretty damn good for a stock $8 tube.

 

@Mithrandir41 have you had time to compare Lyr 3 to your Agartha yet?

 

Not yet. Probably not until Monday

 

Very weirdly speaking, to my ears, MCTH was closer to Lyr 3 in sonic charateristics than Vali 2 was during 10-hour intensive comparisons (I did it to determine which one to sell..) with ADI-2 DAC and LCD2C/HD6XX. Both MCTH and Lyr 3 shared similar sets of strengths. For most criteria, Lyr 3 just did better by a small margin. The biggest difference (and determining point for my final verdict) was that small volume changes at either loud parts and quiet parts were way more accurately and consistently rendered with Lyr 3. I didn't mean MCTH did this poorly. Lyr 3 was just unbeatable there.

Think of good CRT/LCD monitors (say, Benq) - this is MCTH. And, if you experienced, imagine Eizo's well-calibrated ones - and this is Lyr 3. Lyr 3 really reminded me of the experience with the beloved Eizo monitor.

Anyway, really hoping to compare upcoming LP (powered by some good LPS) and Lyr 3. Based on my MCTH experience, I am betting that those two will interestingly compete against each other.

 

Unfortunately, when it’s slipped a Sylvania “Bad Boy,” which had just arrived, I was greeted with a puff of white smoke. I unplugged it, removed the tube, oddly enough, when I added a tube I know, the damn thing was still pumping out beautiful music. Schiit wants it back, so I’ll be without the Lyr 3 for a bit, she’ll be missed.

 

I cannot believe the price hike of 6SN7's since the Lyr 3 has come out. They at least doubled!!!!

 

@Eric I suggest that you do a little more reading (maybe a lot more) and less posting as you get started here. There are way too many one liners from various threads this morning.

We tend to value good signal to noise ratio here. And, as you'll learn, this is not HF. If you haven't taken the time to introduce yourself and establish your preferences please do so. It's difficult to make sense from your post if we don't know what your preferences are.

Do you best to make good quality posts that contribute something useful to the thread. Most of the time one liners won't add much to the conversation or win you any fans.

Anyway, welcome and don't take too much from the "dislike" ...it's meant mostly in good fun.

 

that escalated quickly

 

I've had the Lyr 3 for about a week now, listening with hd600's fed by a Modi Multibit and Eitr. Wow, I thought the Jot was IT, I thought the Jot was my endgame, boy was I wrong.

The smoothness of the Lyr 3 is on another level! I've had tube amps before but this is my first proper tube-sounding amp. I love the "holographic" sound, but somehow it has even more raw detail and than the solid-state Jot. The Lyr 3 really shows what a multibit DAC can do, with the Modi Multibit it's just sublime.

I have had a few days on the stock Tung-Sol and Russian tubes, both are really very good. I prefer the Tung-Sol on low gain and the Russian on high, but you can't go wrong with either. However I think my favorite tube is a black plate Raytheon 6SN7GTB, it just feels a tiny bit more like real live music to me.

In fact, the Lyr 3 impressed me so much I ordered a pair of hd800S to see what it can really do!

So just a tip to anyone buying a Lyr 3, lock your wallet away or get ready for the upgrade bug!

 

If the Lyr 3 is anything like the Mjolnir 2 mute relay click, then I’m confident the severity is tied to microphonic tubes. I’ve experimented with many tubes, from very low microphic E188CC to a very severe batch of WE396A (they acts like microphones), and the loudness of the physical relay click directly correlates to how microphonic the tubes are.

On my Mjolnir 2, it is loud so I don’t put on my headphones until after the click, but I can’t imagine it doing any harm whatsoever. It’s a relatively mid to high frequency signal so it’s not displacing the driver diaphragm that much.

 

Thanks. I'll try and get in touch with Schiit to see if they can send me a replacement tube as the pop on mine is still very loud.

However, your second paragraph may not be entirely correct. The mid to high frequency only means that the diaphragm is vibrating at that frequency. Regardless of the frequency, the loudness of the headphone, has a direct relationship with the displacement of the diaphragm. So a loud click of high frequency, still means the displacement of the diaphragm is high. Just letting you know, so that you don't consider a loud click of high frequency as totally harmless for the headphone.

 

@EagleWings , the Bad Boy Sylvania that exploded in a cloud of white smoke, made two loud clicks, then blew.

Schiit wants me to send the amp back to them, but I literally don’t want to be without it, with both the Clear and Abyss it is sublime (with the surviving “Bad Boy”).

 

Send it. It helps you, as you get it checked out for safety. It helps them diagnose if anything needs improved or changed. It helps us all get the best Schiit we can get.

 

Please note a microphonic does not necessarily equal bad tube, especially for headphone amps where it can’t pickup the headphone sound. The two pairs of WE396A tubes I have both are the most microphonic, but still some of the best sounding tubes (and the best value). If the tubes sound great after being warmed up, then keep them.

I know loud is very subjective, but it’s not that loud to damage anything. Yes I can hear the click even when the headphone is on the stand, but think about how much sound a dinky little computer speaker with 1” cone can make without damage. If the click bothers you, just keep it unplugged.

Anyways back to Lyr 3 impressions

 

You are correct, I’ll send it in and break the Mojo out of purgatory, the “Audio Drawer!”

 

Add the ability to feed Modi Multibit via Eitr and the fact that you can leave Modi Multibit on all the time without affecting the Lyr 3 tube life makes forgoing the AIO option an easy choice for me. I am using the Lyr 3 with my office nearfield/headphone setup which has an iMac as the Roon endpoint. Eitr really helps in this setup.

So far I am quite impressed with the Lyr 3. The clarity and detail are amazing. I am trying it with a variety of tubes before I comment in detail. The stock Soviet tube sounds much better with the Lyr 3 than it did with the Freya. It's actually quite serviceable with the Lyr 3. More to come.....

 

Does the 4490 G2 have the Schiit filter? There's no SHARC I can see on board.

 

No, they don't apply their filter to the D/S DACs. Not sure why, but it's only used on their R2R DACs.

 

Most likely cost, plus maybe reduced sonic benefit with a delta-sigma chip. Schiit doesn't really seem to be focused on delta-sigma, except where cost or space constraints are an issue.