Hopefully the Lyr 3 will be warmer than the Lyr 2, it was a bit disappointing in my opinion.
The lyr 3 is nice, but imo I think the liquid plat is something I prefer more
Well I have not played with the Liquid Platinum but went thru all the Lyr products and just got a new Lyr 3 in house this past week.
I have had approx 16 amps here in the past 12 months, down to about 10 right now, selling some of the herd…being an EE and having built many amps in the past they always have interested me in their design and implemention and of course the end result they were intended for.
The Lyr 3 is a totally different headphone amp from its siblings…So doing a direct comparison is possible if you have them side by side in a controlled environment. (and do some honest AB and or blind testing…)
There is only 1 tube to roll if thats your thing, so the cost is lower than many other amps here.
So Schiit has a design that they call Continuity ™ that is there way of dealing with the Class A to AB transition and its distortion). THX amps have a different way in dealing with this. Its based on Bob Cordell and John Broskie’s information if you care to get into the engineering stuff).
Lyr 3 is has a RCA inputs on the back do if you want balanced look elsewhere, ie Jot? And Power…well some of you indicate 6 watts is more than enough, well how about 9 watts at 16 ohms and 6 watts at 32 ohms, 4 watts at 50 ohms, almost a watt at 300 ohms and only 450 mw at 600 ohms…hmmm probaly would be able to drive those HE6s!! Oh yeah!
Specwise, the THD and IMD are reall decent…<.0007% and <.005%
SNR is 102db…output impedance .3 ohms worst case! Not “tube” shabby…add two internal power transformers with 72VA total rating and over 55,000uf of filter capacitance not to shabby as well.
Unlike the Lyr and Lyr 2 the Lyr 3 can house an additional card either a MB dac or phono preamp. Either of which I do not have in mine. I use a standalone Bifrost 2 and use the Schiit Unison ™ connection from my pc (ripped flacs) to the Lyr3.
I have a BH Crack, BH Mainline, Hagerman Audio EL84 Tuba (parafeed), a Schiit Vahalla 2 , and a dozen other SS amps)…I also got to test a ECP Audio T4 (12AT7) amp from Beezar Audio in Atlanta. So I think I can tell if a tube amp or most amps are really good, or mediocre.
Reading specs is great to get you in the ballpark but there is nothing like plugging into the real thing for several days to actually do a good honest assesment of a piece of gear.
I put off buying a Lyr 3 for months and didnt see anything about it that I really wanted in it that I didnt already have in another amp. So after months and seeing some B-Stock Lyr 3’s on the Schiit site I bit and bought one.
From the first time I put in the stock Russian Tung-Sol 6SN7 and pressing play on a Diana Krall favorite I was floored how well this amp was working…with first Focal Clears, easy to drive 55 ohm cans. No, none, zip, zero nada issues driving the Clears out of the park…more than enough power. Low gain. I swapped out several 6SN7 tubes I have here and all worked well and with minor differences. Some think the Sylvanis 3 rivet Bad Boys as the NOS tube for the Lyr. Dont have one and they are pricey. But with the stock tube the sound is just fine.
So the first impression is “hey this is not a tube amp!!” its too clean and clear…more like a nice SS amp. Hmmm. Good or bad? Well with the Bifrost 2 feeding it I was able to hear stuff (old cliche coming up)…that I never heard before or noticed before? Joni Mitchell hearing her fingers slide up and down the guitar frets, little back ground stuff. quite drum brushes and Diana Krall like “perfect” and inside your head good. Liver performance, piano tonality, squeeking chairs, piano pedals being touched with a foot…hand claps that sound like hand claps…simply amazing.
After several hours and a few days I put up a few of my amps for sale. It was a no brainer, this amp is up there with many ampy costing much more, and its a discrete hybrid, Class AB with some magic in the cross over area…that really works well. I have two other amps that I like as much and a bit better than this amp, the $2K ECP T4 and Hagermans Tuba…I bought the TUBA because it was that good and I could afford it…the T4 is just out of my budget (for now!!).
Comparing to the Hagerman AUdio EL84 Tuba:
Popping in my HD600s they came alive as well, getting real good deep base out of these cans can be a real issue, but the Lyr 3 again surprised me how well this pairing is…on HIGH gain here. Play some classical music with the notes going down real deep, the Trinity Sessions stuff and I was floored at what I was hearing.
Compared to the BH Crack, the Lyr 3 is more transparent and clean, less “euphonic”. You may like this more than clean sound from the Lyr 3. The Vahalla 2 is great with the 600’s almost like the Crack but again very different with the Lyr 3…
So why is this amp and paring with the B2 so good:
(posted this on other sites, B2 + L3 + Clears = Close to Perfection Here…)
"Any recording I play, I can instantly tell if its recorded well, or HOW its recorded, placement of mics, soundstange, absolutely uncanny accuracy in placement of stuff…and you can tell how well they did or HOW they did it…stunning IMO.
Listened to some real low freq organ music…and its like listening to speakers but actually better, ie more accurate…the Clears really surprised me here.
Add the tranasparency, articulation, tonality, gosh its just sublime.
Yes there are other “better” cans and gear but at this total price point its simply amazing to me."
Enjoy the music!
Alex
Hmm… RNHP or this… How well does this amp handle planars?
It depends on your goals. You will get more slam with the lyr and a bit colored sound but it’s pretty nice. The rnhp will be more controlled and refined imo, really depends on what you are looking for
Are you toalking about the RNHP here:
If this is the one its power specs are:
As measured with typical headphones, Z=44 Ω: 3.617 VAC RMS @1kHz = 300mW RMS
16 Ω typical Load: 1.933 VAC RMS @1kHz = 230mW RMS
150 Ω typical Load: 5.108 VAC RMS @1kHz = 175mW RMS
Compare this with the power avaialble for the Schiit Lyr 3…
With planars some require a lot of EMF to work well, not all but alot…ie HE6se’s.
So if thats the case I would think the Lyr 3 would be able to better drive a planar??
I dont have any planars here but used LCD2’s with a Lyr and it worked very well for me.
Alex
IMO I only like them on speaker amps, I wouldn’t even consider using one on a headphone amp, it’s just not going to preform as well from my experience
It’s more than just power output 
That seems like a pretty nice pairing
From a review at Darko’s site:
One headphone which doesn’t pair nicely with the RNHP is the notoriously difficult HiFiMAN HE6, which demands herculean amplification to come alive. By extension, I’ll assume that HiFiMAN’s new Susvara flagship will also require more than the Neve can give. Beyond that, I did not try the JPS Labs Abyss, nor the vintage AKG K1000, but I’m fairly confident they both need more juice as well (based on past experience). And that’s pretty much it. Everything else out there seems to be fair game. A broader range of headphone compatibility than most headphone outputs hitching a ride on a DAC or other device (with exceedingly few/expensive exceptions).
Yes its not all about power, but if you dont have the minumum required to drive a transducer, well your going to fall short…in some cased waaaay short…
How much power is available at what freq and the voltage and current, because P=EI Cos theta!
Alex
From my experience it can drive almost anything I throw at it, except the he6
i drive my t60rp argons with the lyr3 and they sound great together. i virtually never go past noon on the dial, but mostly 9-11. on high gain. low gain drives them fine, but has less bass and soundstage. as a matter of fact i find the low gain useless personally. i dont use iem’s tho, maybe it works well with them? i find high gain, even for my easy to drive headphones, just sounds better over all. YMMV
I would say the lyr 3 is one of the few amps with a tube that works well with planars. and it really can drive just about anything.
all that said, i have not heard but 1 competitor in the same price range, my sprout100. which has a great dynamic headphone amp, but does not have that much juice and struggles with hard to drive planars. i would like to try the monoprice one, liquid platinum? M0N and others have said its a better listen then my beloved lyr3. and its not to much more all and all. i may purchase it myself one day to compare.
It’s more of a preference thing, imo if you already have the lyr 3 I would already say it’s def a solid amp, you aren’t really missing out on much whatsoever
Agree and we all have our preferences and bias for sure…
Its all good. One thing I have learned is there is no one perfect solution that fits all.
I took a look at a few pix of the rhnp amp and am not impressed any more or less than a dozen other amps I have built, bought etc…I would really like a schematic to see how its put together, hard to do this from a pix, bit its components are not anything special from what I see.
That doesnt mean its not a great amp…the measurement kings at another site tout this as a mediocre amp…and others state its the end all of SS amps or amps period.
I am tempted to buy one just to do a real side by side comparison…hmmm.
If yuo have a Lyr 3, you have a great amp, nothing to be sorry about…it works with most headphones very well including planars…its very much not tube like to me…and some folks dont like that.
You dont have to worry about will it work with my “xxx” cans…it just will not like my great BH Crack which does not work well with cans less than 120 ohms…
After trying building and buying soo many amps, I have gravitated to a few that will basically work with most any headphone. The Lyr 3 is one of them.
Time to spend money on transducers!!
:>)
Alex
It’s a traditional TI implementation with a few tweaks if I recall correctly
I think it’s very solid for the price (although def not end all be all), just one of many good options out there. Also do try one if you get the chance, it’s pretty sweet with more easy to drive things (just not overly hard)
Back to the planars with the Lyr 3:
Found this:
I was a little concerned that the lyr3 would be at it’s best with planars and only be “pretty good” with high impedance (650), but that’s not the case. This is a very good amp with the 650.
and
In fact concerns regarding the Lyr 3 with dynamics versus planar, you needn’t worry Mate, it’s excellent with both. I’m going full Schiit fan boi this morning, the Lyr 3 (left on 24/7, playing music since Monday) is grabbing the Clear by the balls, and providing the best bass and stage I’ve heard through these headphones.
and
I just got a pair of LCD-3Fs, and am amazed of how they sound on my Lyr 3 Multibit
and
AEON, MrSpeakers’ New Closed Back Planar Magnetic Headphone
I run mine on a Lyr 3 paired with a 1952 Tung Sol 6SN7 GT. The combo suits my sonic tastes very well and delivers detail and microdynamics so good that it reminds me of the first time I heard something better than a “transistor radio”, Walkman, or school PA system.
and
Lyr 3 would have been my suggestion too… 6SN7 version.
and
If you want to consider planars in the future then consider a Lyr 3 and similar amps. If you want to get serious with planars the “heroic amplification” starts with amps the Cavalli Liquid Platinum and goes up from there are amp hungry and you won’t get good results with lesser amps.
Needless to say the Lyr3 has the power to drive planars well and there are dozens of first hand experiences all over the net on people that have Lyr 3’s and planars…just go take a look.
The Jotenheim will do as well, its a power house as well…slightly different sound, but has balanced outputs as well as SE and balanced inputs where the Lyr 3 does not if that is an issue.
Good Luck!
Alex
Same, eventually, when I know it won’t be too warm (soon) for me to comfortably to enjoy tubes.
Ok so i have been having problems with my beloved lyr 3. extreme dynamics knock it out for 10 seconds or so, like its rebooting. hell is dynamics even the right term? i think so lol. if there is a sudden heavy volume change, sound goes out for 10 ish seconds, then it “clicks” back on. most notably when i am playing FPS titles and someone talks after it has been on for a while. i thought maybe it was an over heat issue at first, but putting an 8" desk fan 3 inches from it blasting it, it still happens. i am thinking maybe a bad solder joint or something internally, or issues with the class a/b topology. maybe having issues when it has to rapid fire switch out of class a and back to class a.
anyone else experience anything like this with theirs? i think i will have to rma my unit.
Just to make sure your tube is seated correctly right and isn’t dying? Also this really sounds like a power supply running out of steam or something
Hifiguides Amazon Link
