Like the title says I am interested in finally trying out a tube amp. Here is the chain:
Modius DAC
Jotunheim2 Amp (I realize this won’t matter just putting it there)
Obviously I dig Schiit’s products. So I looked at possibly the Vali2 as a start simply because its under 200 in case I don’t care for it.
Here are my current HP’s:
Arya SE, Focal Radiance, HD Zeus and TYGR 300.
Not a vast collection of HP’s yet, but I am building towards it. I’m not looking to spend a ton on a tube but I also don’t want something too cheap to where it won’t do the sound justice. So any advice on where to start?
Oh, and on a side note since I don’t know much about this setup…can I hook both amps up to the modius at once? My thought was the balanced XLR to my Jot2 and then RCA to the Tube amp and simply use my Modius to switch source. I’m sure I could be wrong that I have to unplug one to use another… or perhaps I need to go the XLR rout for the tube too.
I’d look at xDuoo MT-604 and use the XLR outs from the Jot 2 to act as your preamp and level control for it. Maintains fully balanced profile, and circumvents the oddity of the amp which is the dual volume controls.
Per your initial thoughts though, you can run both Modius outputs simultaneously to amps, no problem. If you got an rca-only input amp.
Ahh, I did not know I could do this. Awesome, thank you for that tip. I actually was recommended the 604 but the back xlr input had me stumped on if I would be unplugging my main amp everytime I want to use it.
So be honest, really all your headphones (although not heard the zeus), aren’t going to take all that well to a lot of the budget tube amps, especially not OTL, so if you are looking for a more entry level option I’d consider a hybrid amp instead. I personally think for things like the arya or radiance you will want to be in the 1k ish range or easily higher to drive those well with a tube amp, and for the tygr it will be fairly hit or miss.
But there are plenty of affordable tube hybrid amps sub 1k to try out. I personally think given your headphones I’d gravitate toward a monolith liquid platinum as I think it’s a sweeter leaning amp that does change somewhat with tube swaps with enough power and quality to drive the arya decently well considering the price (at least the og arya, not heard the stealth version). I’ve not heard the xduoo so I can’t comment there.
Generally I think if you wanted a true tube amp I’d look toward the quicksilver headphone amp (I’ve got an article here about it with comparisons to other tube and solid state amps in the price bracket), personally think that would be a solid pick for the price point and also give you a fair amount of flexibility can wise
Definitely have seen plenty of good references to the liquid plat on these forums. I’ll look into your recommendations so thank you for that. I’m growing my headphone collection so really this is just something to get me started out.
You mentioned tube hybrid which I know the Vali2 is…thoughts on that one? I’m a bit of a Schiit fan considering I’ve main the Modius/Jot2 currently.
Gotcha gotcha. I will say with some of the headphones you have already like the hifiman and the focal the source gear and synergy demands are already going to be pretty high, so I’d make sure not to skimp on source gear for them in the future so you can take further advantage of what they can offer
The vali 2+ is a tube hybrid yes, as is the xduoo and the monolith. Generally I thought the vali 2+ is a pretty nice amp for the money, would be pleasant with the tygr, although I’d personally find it pretty disappointing with an arya or radiance. That being said, for the cost of the vali 2+ and a nice tube to go with it, I might honestly just rather buy an asgard 3 from them since I think that’s an overall technical step up from the vali and still has a warmer and wider signature that the vali can have depending on tube choice (although I’m personally more a person who focuses on overall quality of amp rather than technology/topology so I don’t personally care if something has tubes or not)
Interesting. Almost got the Asgard 3 but decided on the Jot2 instead to have the balanced option. Love my Jot2, just always wanting to experiment further. Now I’ve noticed the Lyr3 which also seems like the next step from the Asgard3 but with tube option. However, pretty close in price to the liquid platinum. Also checking into the quicksilver you linked.
Plenty of options to research into. Thank you for that!
The Lyr is a nice amp, I’d say a step above the jot, it’s an overall cleaner neutral amp for the most part with a forward lean, can be adjusted a bit with tube swaps but it’s generally a cleaner and dryer amp, great control and detail, nice depth although I think width is somewhat lacking, and decent dynamics and timbre. I do personally prefer the liquid platinum over the lyr mainly because it’s warmer and sweeter tonality is personally more to my preference, it’s superior staging overall, and better macrodynamic performance vs the lyr with similar overall control and resolution (but you have to use it balanced, it’s lackluster single ended, not so for the lyr of course lol), both are solid options
I would certainly back Mon’s recommendation on the LP. It is a great amp. The only flaw for me was the high gain. You can not use it with IEM’s and with really efficient headphones there is little to no room on the volume dial.
Great with Focal and HiFiman products for me.
I had the Vali2 and I honestly don’t see the point of it. It is not at all tubey. I found it loud, clear and neutral and just like a solid state amp. I bought it to see if I might like the Lyr 3. Didn’t make me want to climb the Schiit tree. On the other hand I see lots of used Lyr 3’s online so you could probably try it out without going too deep financially.
I have an XDuoo MT-602 that I am now trying to sell. It is great bang for the buck, but MAN is that gain high. I had to use my Violectric as a pre-amp to make it usable with my efficient headphones.
If I were you, I would look at the Liquid Platinum. It is often on sale and you could even buy used. Sweet sound. As your collection grows, it will get even better.
Yes it’s like the lyr 3, as in if you are looking for warmth, richness, and what people traditionally consider “tubey” then it’s not going to be a worthwhile pickup and you will want to look elsewhere. You can tell there’s a tube in the circuit, but it’s a much more subtle implementation that’s just trying to be a good amp but happens to have a tube in it (rather than trying to emphasize having one in sound). Honestly all the schiit tube products have always tended to have a cleaner leaning signature tbh, their solid state has consistently leaned warmer and richer lol
This being said, I personally don’t look for tubes to give a specific signature, I think the real benefit of tubes comes more in the intangibles rather than the voicing of the amp
So yeah I am leaning more and more towards the Liquid Platinum for sure. @M0N you have definitely given me some things to think about however as to if I even should bother with it right now. All of my collection currently consists of low impedence HP’s. All of them sound just great on my Jotunheim 2.
The only reason I will/could get the Liquid Plat is to have something for future HP purchases…which was my whole reason to look into Tubes to begin with.
I’ll just have to be ok with unplugging my Jot2 and plugging in the Tube amp for when that happens because I don’t like the idea of using the pre-amp out of the Jot2 to plug in another amp. Then comes the issue of using the Jot2 volume dial along with the amp and its, to me anyway, too fussy and makes me question if its a good pure chain. I know they also make adapters/switches for such thing which I could always look into as well.
I’m sure I will one day own the HD800s and when that day comes, I for sure will have a tube amp ready!
Yeah you can just grab some xlr splitters and run both at the same time by splitting off your dac without much if any quality loss (depending on the dac). But if you plan to have more than 2 amps, you will likely want a switch
For specifically an 800s there’s so many tube options out there lol