As I recall the MCTH I had was fairly neutral with a mild tilt to warm with a smidgen of tube flavor/ or a dash of tube flavor 
lol It is a very capable lil hybrid but not the most Tube sounding. I believe the Lyr3 would be a step up in performance and tube flavor from the MCTH. Though I’ve only briefly heard the Lyr3 in demo/meet-up scenarios so I will defer to those with more experience than I regarding the Lyr3.
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Yes, very very little tube sound. I had the MCTH and sold it – it had a little extra high-end sparkle and was subdued versus a pure solid state amp. The Lyr may be superior (no experience), but I found the Loxjie P20 to be much better than the MCTH myself.
Note that others reported that MCTH tube swapping resulted in little impact with different tubes.
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Buying advice?
I’ve been considering picking up one of these to pair with a chord mojo / ifi xdsd as DACs for the Focal Elear w/Clear Pads (proxy Elex - I like that it’s all genuine Focal and available from headphones.com here— also using SonarWorks Reference 4 for EQ which makes a big difference in bass clarity and detail).
Question - from anyone’s experience, would using a THX 789 with those DACs and efficient headphones like the Focals, that don’t really need additional power to drive them, add detail or clarity to the sound? Just looking for an incremental way to enhance the system I have without starting over. (I’ve heard a lot of and more expensive equipment, but not not this amp or dedicated amps driven by a dac/amp such as the mojo as the dac.) Any advice from you guys here is appreciated.
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I think the MCTH for the money is a great tube hybrid, the LYR3 has a bit more detail to my ears and what I perceive as a slightly wider stage. The MCTH is warmer to my ears which is awesome when you want a bit more bass. However that is stock tube with the LYR3 I have to start rolling the tubes I have to see the changes. The stock tube on the MCTH is great. No fatigue for me with either amp, a bit more relaxed treble presentation. Very enjoyable both paired up with Bifrost 2.
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Nice. 
So many tube options out there.
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Focal’s headphones don’t require very much power.
I own the Elex, and trying to change its character drove a lot of my purchase decisions a couple years ago. When using the Elex today I usually run it with a THX 789, but I don’t choose it anymore after buying a set of Clears. The Elex was never pleasant for long sessions or high intensity music (e.g., hard rock, metal, contemporary electronic, etc.)
My main issues with the Elex are (1) intense mid-high [e.g., female vocals, electric guitars] metallic brightness or glare, and (2) extreme dynamic intensity. After comparing with the Clear, both of these issues seem to follow from the heavy weight of the Elex (Elear) drivers – once the drivers start moving they are hard to stop.
I initially ran the Elex on a Mass(Drop) CTH and didn’t like them much. They were piercing and fatiguing to my ears. As they shipped with a balanced cable, I bought a balanced source (FiiO Q5) and ran them with an XLR-to-2.5mm adapter. The glare improved and the dynamics moderated too. I later bought a 789 and found it to be the best source for the Elex, as its lack of noise mitigated the headphone’s excessive dynamics.
HOWEVER, don’t expect miracles with the Elex no matter what you do. If I was buying again, I’d skip the Elex entirely and jump straight to the Clear. If you are serious about improvements, I DO RECOMMEND that you start over (buy other headphones) rather than pursue marginal changes to the Elear/Elex.
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@generic - Thanks for the advice and insight from your experience with the Elex!
Specifically to the amp, do you find you attain more detail from the 789 from a DAC/amp like the mojo than from the DAC/amp on its own, with the Clears, as efficient headphones that don’t actually need much power? Curious if an amp can improve a DAC/amp source for detail if power isn’t needed.
(Meant the earlier post as a general THX 789 post btw, not as part of MCTH thread.)
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The 789 presents the raw, rough, unvarnished truth. You can hear every little recording flaw, hot mic, squeak, string pluck, etc. Yes you’ll hear more detail than possible with many other systems (I have no personal experience with the Mojo). I happen to like its precision and clarity most of the time with the Elex, Sennheiser HD-600, and Dan Clark Aeon Flow Closed.
Oddly, while I like the 789 with the Elex, I do not like it with the Clears. In contrast with the Elex, the Clear drivers are very light and responsive. They nicely reveal tone, air, ambience, and decay. With the 789 the Clear picks up on small flaws and makes them unpleasant, so I prefer a less resolving amp.
Yeah, it can be hard to keep posts 100% relevant. In general, the 789 is fantastic for bringing out the range, dynamics, and detail possible with any set of headphones. In most cases that’s good for me. With some people, sources, or headphones it can increase fatigue, or seem too cold, dry, bright, analytical, etc.
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I’m reading some amps performing better in high gain mode like heresy and asgard 3. How is thx 789 ? Do you guys notice any difference in different gains ?
It’s louder in high gain.
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Well that’s obvious 
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The 789 is a textbook example of a neutral amp. Volume is the only notable difference between gain settings.
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Any post I make on Friday night is guaranteed to be silly and not very helpful. Sorry. 
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Anybody here tried using the 789 as a power amp? I can tell a slight difference with full gain, knob cranked all the way up. Bass becomes a little fuller but soundstage depth decreases. It ends up sounding a bit more “musical.” At least that has been my experience, so I was wondering if anybody else tried it and came to the same conclusion.
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You’re maximizing distortion by doing that. So your observations make sense, increased distortion can be subjectively preferrable.
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Ah, I see. Is that harmful for the amp or headphones? Other than it being dangerous volume-wise.
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I don’t think it’s harmful, just be careful that your volume doesn’t have a chance to jump to 100%. 
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Of course! Thanks, learned something new
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Please elaborate.
Are you turning up the volume on the 789 and using a set of headphones as room speakers? If so, the headphones are likely operating out of their design parameters and distorting more than the amp (or they are on the way to frying).
Or, are you connecting the 789 to another amp or set of regular speakers?
What is the full signal chain?
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My fault for not elaborating…
I have the 789 on highest gain, pot all the way up. It is fed by an rme dac and I just control the volume from the rme for headphones.
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