Which tubes did you use for the TUBA/Lyr 3?
It’s interesting that @hifiDJ brought up the Burson soloist and people have responded with a list of other amps. Is that because there isn’t much ownership of Burson products or because you think other brands have better value for money?
I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with Burson, so I started reading reviews of their gear and they look very intriguing, definitely an alternative to the Schiit gear that everyone always talks about (and I admittedly bought myself). I want to buy an integrated DAC/amp for my son to take to college to drive his 6XX and the Burson Playmate looks interesting, particularly as it can slot into his gaming PC.
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I’ll give you a supplemental answer to @lost33 because I think he has a lot of tubes. I have the same Psvane Treasure Globe as @pennstac in my Lyr 3 and I really liked it as an upgrade, and have stopped buying more tubes. @ValentineLuke has a Sophia blue which he also loves. Both are “new construction” and both also have the benefit of looking beautiful. There’s quite a lot of good information on buying old and new 6SN7 tubes in the official Lyr 3 thread. I think the TUBA uses a different tube from the Lyr 3.
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The tubes Jim shipped with my Tuba were the Mullard re-issues. Which are not bad,
That said, I have a bunch of tubes EL84 6BQ5 types:
I have a old NOS set of EL84’s Original Blackburn Mullards, excellent, a set of RFT’s excellent, RCA NOS 1960’s again excellent.
The Lyr 3 is a totally different tube family: 6SN7 tube. Stock Tungsol that Schiit sent with the Lyr are very strong, actually stronger than any of my NOS collection. RCA 60’s are nice, Some Sylvania NOS 60’s all good…a friend uses a Sophia tall coke bottle type and likes it but u have to get a tube extender for it to fit in the Lyr3
Alex
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Burson from Australia just doenst seem to have the presence it once did in the good ole HA-160 days.
In the past few years they sent me some gear to try out, the Burson Fun and Bang. The Fun was wonderful, and an amp where they encouraged swapping op amps, well the sell discrete op amps as well, go figure!
The FUN was an excellent Class A amp…loved it. Great price.
Alex
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Yeah not much content out there for burson products in the headphone hobby. I do see them more often with 2-channel stereo setups; mostly used as a preamp. Burson products are known to be very smooth sounding from what I’ve seen. Not to mention, imo, the burson amps are better looking than most amps out there. Pretty unique look.
Also, the way the soloist is priced is unique as well. Not much amps around the $1000 range worth mentioning…at least from what I know.
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That looks pretty cool not gonna lie. Thanks for the info!
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A quick comment:
I’m still getting used to noise cancelling, and a lot of my listening so far has been spoken word…streaming Seahawks/ESPN talk radio and CNN news while working. My initial impression is that I like the "Wind Noise Resistance” mode the best as everything seems/sounds more normal…(it definitely takes a bit of getting used to changes in background sounds). There is also the element of attention to safety I’m learning while walking the dogs around the neighborhood. Hitting the ACN button initially reminds me of hitting the Loudness Button on my old school receiver…I’ll update more after I get a chance to just sit and listen to music a bit.
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so…new to this forum hi everyone. lots of good stuff in the forum already, appreciate it. i’m a mid-fi user and wondering what to put on my wish list now/on santa’s list/when i get year end bonus.
in this forum, the consensus is largely that one should save up their if they want a headphone upgrade between the HD6XX and the Clears or Aeolus. Is that fair? I just got the HE4XX as a planar to try and I do like them. There are planars between those price points, but I haven't heard the HE4XX enough to know what I like or don't like. It seems bizarre to me that the gap is so wide for the next good big enough to matter step up. like, in IEM land, there’s a lot of stuff in those gaps to fit your needs (ER4, moondrop, thieaudio, whatever the chi-fi flavor of the month is), but in headphone land there isn’t. anyone know why this is?
on that note, i have seen recommended elsewhere that one should focus their $ on the transducer more than amps and dacs. but…that conventional wisdom seems to go out the window when you’re talking a (retail) $1000 difference between HD6XX and the next step up. any thoughts on this?
(really i’m justifying the bifrost 2 when i can get around to buying it don’t mind me)
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Welcome @PastorOfMuppets to the forum. Do you have the HD 6XX right now? What’s your current system (DAC and amp)? I ask because this information will help us to answer your questions with better advice.
You’re entirely right: the usual recommendation is to invest, first and foremost, in the transducer, then the amp, next the DAC, and eventually, once you’ve ascended to a certain, high level, the source. The HD 6XX/650 is tricky, though, because it scales so very much: an HD 6XX out of a totl amp is supposed to sound glorious and can be endgame for some (I’ve not heard such a setup but I can attest to the radical improvement of these headphones with superior amps). The upgrade path for the HD 6XX thus gets complicated by amp and DAC pairings. The Clear, by contrast, don’t necessarily scale as much, but they arguably perform better out of humbler setups.
I’ll defer to others with more experience: the Bifrost 2 is very highly regarded, but my understanding is that it’s slightly on the warm side of neutral, and I’m not sure if pairing it with a warm headphone like the HD 6XX would be an ideal match, although this will, of course, be determined by which amp you’ll be using. The overall system synergy is what matters.
I think you’re on the right lines in considering the Clear and Aeolus to be upgrades to the HD 6XX.
For planars, you might consider the Audeze offerings, with the LCD2-Classic, the LCD2, and the LCD X or else the Dan Clark Audio (formerly Mr Speakers) Aeon, or the HiFiMAN Ananda or Arya (although I don’t recommend HiFiMAN because of its notoriously poor build quality). Full disclosure: I have the LCD2-Classic and am conflicted and ambivalent about it: it’s a great rock headphone, and it’s good for electronic music, but it’s not an all-rounder; acoustic instruments, for instance, won’t sound great on it. I’ve had mine for 10 months now and still can’t decide if I’d like to keep it long-term.
Keep an eye out for Black Friday sales, especially if you’re in the US. I picked up my LCD2-C for $200 less than the retail price last year directly from Audeze.
Finally, you make an interesting point about the upgrade paths, or leaps, for over-ear headphones vs. IEMs. Just a couple of years ago, new over-ear releases in the $500-1000 range, with the Aeon, the LCD2-C, the Elex, among others, generated a lot of excitement precisely because, as you note, there was little else between the affordable and high ends of the market. I have to say I’d found that until very recently, the last year or so, the leap beyond $200-300 IEMs has been even more daunting. There were very few offerings until you got to the $1000+ range, with something like the Campfire Andromeda. Now, it seems, there are quite a few more mid-range options with the Thieaudio, the MEST Mini, the Moondrops, and others. It’s great to see this market open up!
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As already mentioned, please provide your current setup. It wasn’t really clear if you already own the 6XX, Clear, or Aeolus or not? What amp / DAC?
More importantly, what are you wanting to improve upon sonically or in features with future purchases?
Also, the HD650 and 6XX are outliers in that the headphone is almost two decades old.
If a higher MSRP/price helps you determine value (and it shouldn’t), consider that I spent $600 on my HD650 (15+ years ago), and Adjusted for inflation that’s over $800 today.
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The 600/650/6XX do indeed scale well, but they do have technical limits. They are smooth and slick but not very dynamic. The Clear is on another level for presenting 2nd and 3rd order details and nuances. I like them both and use them both regularly.
I was you a couple years ago. Same musical views, same Black Friday deal, and same mixed feelings. In addition, the treble was piercing and they were extremely uncomfortable on my head and jaw. I rarely used them so I sold them after about a year.
Given that this is a recurring pattern with the LCD-2C, I now wouldn’t recommend them (or HiFiMan). Dan Clark yes.
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The 600/650 price got pressed down by a lot of forces. Product age, competition, and Sennheiser itself needed room for the 800, 800S, and then the 700 and 660. The Mass(Drop) 6XX inadvertently brought the price way down too – it was originally to be limited to 4,000 or 5,000 units – the current sales total is 112,100.
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i haz an hd6xx with a magni 3/modi. using the he4xx on that stack. ifi zen dac in my spare office space, used with an er2xr and fiio fh3. earstudio in my car. fiio btr5 and topping nx4 somewhere around. mdr-v6 in a cabinet somewhere.
Welcome! The “usual” tier upgrades in this range also include the following: HE4XX, HD58X, HD6XX, Sundara, Elegia, Elex, Ananda, and then beyond. If you already own the HE4XX, I could see it still being worthwhile to upgrade to the Elegia/Elex/Ananda rather than jumping all the way to the Aeolus/Clear.
See these current (smashing) deals:
Master of Puppets is an all time great album. Good luck.
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I had tacos al pastor the other night and so I missed, at first, the album reference, the mind instead going to kermit in a tortilla with some pineapple…
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I would have said that a couple years ago. Now I’d say stay with the 600/6XX/650 and upgrade the amp, or just jump to the Clear. I tried HiFiMan, Audeze, Focal Elex and balanced cables/amps too. All the headphones between the 600/650 and Clear have relative flaws and limitations. I spent as much money on work-arounds as on the Clear outright (i.e., <$1,000 street as open box or used).
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An excellent al pastor sometimes has that effect! The kermit with some pineapple is a reasonable association.
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I could see that and good point on relative flaws/limitations in this range, although I’m not sure if I’d personally go from the HE4XX to the 600 series if I already had the 4XX in hand. It might depend on the ultimate intended can and chain in the short and long term.