Gosh…we hear pretty much the same with these Schiit amps…I dont have the Asgard 3, but someday!! lol…like I need another amp…
The Jot is a great piece of gear and love it with the HEDDS…for that Rebecca Pidgeon “moment”…this is a great piece of music for sure. One of my demos cuts…
The Lyr 3 I do have and its the best with the Focal Clears, less so with the JOT…and like use mostly HIGH gan on the jot just because it works so well from me and my ears…even thought the LOW gain drives most anything well too…
bingo! I had the Empyrean last year and could never get it sound as good IMS as it had at shows. The sound was quite likeable, yet not very dynamic. The longer I stayed with it, the less distinguished the sound seemed to me–lagging the headphone’s beautiful design & appearance.
I finally sold it after it came in 2nd in comparison the my HEX v2.
I’m in the position now where the Asgard is good, but not great, with the Empyrean. (Its better with the leather pads, but I’d prefer to use the suede for comfort.)
The BW2 is very good, but not excellent. Auteur pairing is better here.
Jot is better than BW2, but some nit picks can still be made. I know it can do better, like in my friend’s Morpheus > ECP 3F > Empy chain. The Yggy/Jot combo is getting nearly all my head-time. I dearly miss my 3F.
Hopefully I’ll have another amp to compare against in the next week or so.
It wasn’t a blatant mismatch with any of them. But it also never sounded as exciting and nuanced as it routinely did at shows, often on large, expensive TOTL tube amps. But I’d even heard it sound terrific on the Gilmore Lite MKII (better than IMS). Bizarre.
I’m still not sure what happened w/me & the Empyrean. I have a real jones for planars & thought that headphone would please me 'til the end of days, but it just didn’t work out that way.
Appreciate these impressions. I’m considering going from the Modi Multibit to the Bifrost 2. Any observations regarding the B2’s SE vs balanced performance?
My general impression of the lineup altogether is as you move up you get what you pay for and more, especially compared to their competitors. The stacks that exceeded my expectations the most were the Valhalla/B2 and Vali/Mimby.
I spent time at each rig with my Eikon and HD650. Back in Black, Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, Girl from Ipanema at Carnegie Hall, Bill Evans Trio Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Another One Bites the Dust.
With my high impedance cans and to my ear, someone who enjoys tubes and multibit over solid state and delta sigma, I really enjoyed the Valhalla/B2 stack. I better appreciate now how OTLs are said to pair well with ZMF and HD650. Texture, dimension, layering - not at the level of the DNA Starlett that I’ve been demoing, but really enjoyable and distinct from solid state.
I listened to the Valhalla side by side with the Lyr 3 AK4490 DAC amp combo. The latter was enjoyable but I had a clear preference for the former. Note that those with planars or lower impedance cans may prefer the Lyr.
To even the playing field, with permission from Will who runs the place, I connected the B2 to the Lyr. The B2 performing DAC duties provided a substantially improved blacker background, resolution, openness. The Lyr is probably a superior amp based on technical ability and versatility. Still, I preferred the Valhalla.
So now my curiosity is - how do the Echo and Crack with SB compare with the Valhalla, also taking into account the price.
Also what did you think of the Lyr 3?