Lyr Reviews
6moons.com, Srajan Ebaen
“And to jump ahead, to exceed it as pure valve headphone amp could take $4.000 for an Eddie Current Balancing Act or fully tricked out Woo Audio Model 5.”
“While it’s cliché to say, unless you’ve heard the HD800 over the Lyr you’ve not yet met the real McCoy. Everything the Sennheiser does naturally well remains untouched—soundstage illumination and stage size, speed, high resolution—but where it is traditionally weaker—bass power, body, fleshiness, saturation—gets royally kicked in the arse and up a few very obvious notches. At $449 the Lyr is simply a must audition for any HD800 lover or considerateur.”
“I felt from starting with the Asgard that the company deserved an award. I simply wanted to sleep my way through all their super models before tacking that distinction on one. Because the Lyr does it all—power, refinement, quiet and drive into any commercial load—it’s the one.”
Positive Feedback, John Acton
“The first thing that struck me when listening to the Lyr was the sense of inexhaustible headroom and effortlessness it conveyed. Schiit Audio is serious when cautioning against destroying one’s headphones with indiscriminate turns of the volume knob. Tonally, the overall presentation was imbued with a sense of warmth and solidity, especially in the lower midrange and upper bass. This quality worked synergistically to flesh out the lower registers of the Sennheiser HD 800 and AKG K702 headphones, both of which are extremely accurate, and as a consequence can sound a touch threadbare depending on partnering ancillaries and/or source material.”
“Schiit Audio clearly has a winner with the Lyr headphone amplifier. I frankly had no reason to expect that such an inexpensive component (manufactured in the US, no less) could sound as good as it does. Coupled with great customer support, a full five-year warranty and endless opportunity to tailor its sound via tube rolling, the Lyr represents a flat-out bargain, one that will keep owners happy for years to come.”
CNET Audiophiliac, Steve Guttenberg
“The Lyr with the HE-6 headphones was an awesome combination. Yes, it could play as loud as any sane person would ever want, but even when listening at a very moderate volume the clarity and detail were impressive. Classical music was vivid, but never bright or thin sounding; other good quality headphones sound cloudy by comparison with the HE-6 (review in the works). Stereo imaging was liberated beyond the confines of the headphones, and the open quality made the Lyr-HE-6 very easy to listen to for hours at a time.
Summing up, I loved the Lyr, it brought out the best with every headphone I tried. Considering its sound and build quality, Schiit’s direct-sale home trial policy, and five-year warranty, the Lyr deserves my highest recommendation.”
Head-fi, Jude Mansilla
“…what the Lyr does do better than maybe any other headphone amplifier I’ve heard the HE-6 through is incite peals of macrodynamic thunder, which, given the HE-6′s amp-devouring nature, is certainly no mean feat. In fact, I’ll go so far as to venture that a good number of HE-6 owners may not know just how lively and charged the HE-6 can be. I was listening to the finale from Stravinsky’s Firebird (Eiji Oue, Minnesota Orchestra, available at HDTracks.com), and literally kept re-playing the track–over and over and over. I’ve heard this piece many times through the HE-6, but not like that.
“…the Lyr is my current favorite HE-6 energizer, of all the amps I currently have on hand (alas, I don’t yet have the big Woo, but am considering it).”
“While the LCD-2 certainly doesn’t benefit from the muscle alone as much as the HE-6 does, the Lyr does breathe a lot of life into a headphone that’s already lively most of the time. If you tend to listen loudly, the big dynamics from the Lyr/LCD-2 will be immediately spellbinding, and almost certainly better in this regard than what most of us have on hand to drive our LCD-2′s.”
Wired, Bryan Gardinier
“…we didn’t have any orthos on hand, but we did match up the amp with our favorite pair of AGK 702s and a friend’s Sennheiser 650s. The results were stunning in both cases. The Lyr warmed up our cold, calculating 702s, adding a depth of soundstage that was incredibly precise on albums like Massive Attack’s Mezzanine. It showed zero distortion on Kraftwerk’s The Mix and a combination of Herculean power and finesse on tracks like “A/B Machines” from Sleigh Bells’ debut.
Simply put, the Lyr is exquisite overkill in almost every respect. And paired with a decent DAC, this is one headphone amp even the son of Odin could get behind. Plug in and you will truly feel like you’re in the hall of the mountain king.”
What Hi-Fi (Poland)
5-star rating for sound and value
(pending translation)
Digital Audio Review (Australia)
“However, in a self-referencing, Escher-drawn twist, there might not be a better headphone amplifier from which to start one’s headphone journey. It has all ‘phones covered. For those adventurous enough to roll tubes, it could start and then end at this Schiit-stop.”