Hey, was just wondering if anyone here owned any of the Tor Audio amps? Particularly the Tor Balanced amp. Wondering what your thoughts are on them? What do you pair them with? Any caveats to be aware of?
Also, fuck corona and stay healthy!
Cheers,
Pr3ss
I’ve listened to the tor roger a few times and it’s pretty sweet for the price, ergonomics were an issue, but I think for the price it’s actually quite impressive that you get hand wound transformers IIRC and the sound was pretty nice too. I would like to hear a tor balanced but I don’t think I need another tube amp lol
I was interested in getting their newest balanced amp but I ended up getting LYR 3 instead. The thing that kind of stopped me was the communication turn around time. It took them a month to reply to my inquiry. That scared me considering how far they are and the amount of time I have to spend if there’s something goes wrong with the product.
It would most likely take you easily around a few months to get one, the wait is too long lol, in the time you wait you could save up and get a higher end tube amp
So I just messaged them today wondering if stuff was available, get a response within 4 hours 0_0. I prolly just got lucky. But yea, for buying an amp from a tiny company in an Eastern European company I definitely expect the delay. How is the Lyr working out for you?
Hmm. Maybe. I definitely like the look of their amps over that of other amps at the same (or much greater) price tier. It’s also an amp that, worst case scenario, is not tooo much of an investment. Hopefully easily resellable if it doesn’t work out. Then again, keeping in mind that there are not a whole lot of them out there, I don’t think I’ve read anything negative at all about them? Seems like a good omen in an industry of skeptics, maybe?
Fair enough, I just mean if the wait is ludicrous or something, a month or two isn’t bad, but if you get something like a DNA amp or Glenn OTL the waits can be upwards of like 6 months, and times they can get that long so I would just ask before ordering (but that’s a bit different since those are much more high end)
Jeeeeeesus both of those are huge. I don’t have room on or near my desk lol. I wish. I barely have enough room for a Tor balanced + dac. Like the Jotunheim is about as much as I could feasibly fit on this thing (with enough room for mousepad, mic, and beer lol). Though I’d love to hear those things, thinking about having them as desktop daily drivers feels a little weird right now 
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If the wait was longer than 3 months I’d definitely reconsider. Also, fucking corona quarantine / semi-quarantine is gonna last at least that long if not more, so hey, waiting wouldn’t kill me.
Regardless, still haven’t seen anyone talking too much about the balanced Tor amp 
Tube amps get real massive and real heavy real quick lol
Yea lol, that’s what I’m seeing. The smallest tube fully balanced one that doesn’t have major complaints (and is supposed to actually not murder planars), fits on my desk, and (barely) fits in my budget is the Tor balanced. Solid state on the other hand, lotssss of options in reasonable sizes.
It works out real nice. The idea at that time was that it’s a hybrid so I can pair it with my plannar but after sometime, I just start using my other hybrid for the plannar 
Yeah, it’s amazing how lazy one can be…
I’m still interested in trying out OTL and transformer based tube amp though.
That’s how it is sometimes. Maybe they got enough number of complaints on this 
Nice 
I got a dud Heresy and a Hel with issues, so I’m really cautious of schiit stuff right now. However, I’m still interested in the Lyr. What Dac / headphones are you using with it? Any favorites?
Hell yes. I really wanna try out tube amps. I know no audiophiles irl, and I don’t want to get thrown off tubes by something too cheap (which kinda seems to be the case. Someone buys 200 tube amp, doesn’t make a huge difference or makes it sound worse. person never really buys tubes again till they hear something nicer). But I also don’t want to throw my savings at it lol.
Yea, I think I just got lucky. They also only answered 1 of my 2 questions, but hey that’s a comparatively quick response 
Sorry to hear that bad experience. I started with SS amps but didn’t quite like it. I’ll have to try them again. Maybe at higher price point or at least that was the plan (CanJam SoCal) before the whole COVID-19 messed it up. I’m just enjoying my setup for now. No rush really.
Link to my setup:
How did you manager have an issue with the Heresy AND Hel? I have 5 Schiit products and they’re all exceptional.
Heresy is a dud. Confimed on multiple systems. Hel has an extraordinarily scratchy pot along with some fucked up issues with the gain switch. I asked schiit about it and kinda just got a, ‘send it in, but you’re probably wrong’ type of response. Idk. Hel is usable, heresy is fucked. Left channel is completely gone (and knob is just as scratchy). I honestly thought the sound coming through my left channel was gonna break my headphones.
I have a balanced Geshelli stack now, and zero issues.
Well I’m glad you have something to enjoy the music now. That’s super rough and I don’t blame you. Bifrost 2 is solid if maybe your luck is related to just amps.
Has anyone here had a chance to compare the sound of the Tor Roger vs Tor Balanced. They have the same power output so I’m wondering if its really worth double the price to go balanced? Any thoughts much appreciated.
I have the Tor Roger for about a week now and it’s a great amp. I haven’t heard the balanced Tor amplifier but I have a vague recollection of reading that the balanced one can power both balanced and single ended headphones on account of the tordial transformer. It is the one use case for an XLR to TRS connection.
I didn’t go for the balanced option due to the doubling of cost, I figured that the single ended would be all I would need. So far I haven’t had any issues.
Edit: This was what I came across regarding balanced to single ended: Tor Audio Headphone Amps. | Page 3 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
Just grabbed one of these on a whim…curious.
I’ve got a Tor Audio Nick. I’ve been enjoying it with my modded HD58X, but at least with that headphone, this amp does not provide anything near a flat frequency response! Attached shows the same headphone measured on an Atom (REd) and the Tor Audio Nick (Blue). The Tor Audio basically adds something like a Harman bass shelf and attenuates the treble quite a bit. It’s a pleasant effect, but not “hifi” if that’s what your looking for.
