Lyr 2, Valhalla 2 Complete the Second Generation

May 30, 2014, Valencia, CA. Today, Schiit Audio announced the immediate availability of its Lyr 2 and Valhalla 2 headphone amplifiers, with extensive updates to enhance sonic performance and system flexibility. These updates replace two of the the most popular tube-hybrid and all-tube headphone amps on the market, Schiit’s original Lyr and Valhalla.

 

“We’re very proud of the second generation of our mid-range headphone amps,” said Jason Stoddard, Schiit’s Co-Founder. “Now, you can enjoy Lyr 2’s power with a much broader range of headphones than Lyr, and Valhalla 2 is really insanely flexible for an OTL tube amp.”  

 

Lyr 2 is a high-power (6W) hybrid design with the flexibility to be used with a broad range of headphones—not just hard-to-drive orthodynamics. It adds switchable gain, automatically muted preamp outputs, 5 regulated power supplies for significantly lower noise, and a refined output stage for lower distortion than the previous Lyr. 

 

Valhalla 2 is an all-triode design that is significantly more flexible than most tube headphone amps—it is fully capable of driving efficient, low-impedance headphones, and offers significantly higher power output into high-impedance headphones (up to nearly 1W at 300 ohms.) It adds switchable gain, automatically muted preamp outputs, and significant topology enhancements for much lower distortion and an output impedance of only 3.5 ohms in low gain mode. 

 

Both amps are ideal for creating a complete desktop control center, with both headphones and powered monitors (connected via the preamp output.)

 

Like all Schiit products, Lyr 2 and Valhalla 2 are made in the USA, offer a 15-day money-back guarantee (with 5% transaction fee), and feature a 5-year warranty. 

 

Prices remain at $449 for Lyr 2 and $349 for Valhalla 2, and the products are available for immediate purchase directly from Schiit Audio at schiit.com

 

Founded in June 2010 by audio industry “old dogs” Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat, Schiit Audio has a simple, if somewhat insane, mission: to bring superior performance, design, and quality to audio products at near-Chinese prices, while manufacturing in the USA.

 

Jason Stoddard was the former engineering lead at Sumo, designing power amps that included Polaris II, Polaris III, Andromeda III, Ulysses, Ulysses II, The Ten, The Five, as well as preamplifiers including Athena II, Diana, and Artemis, and Sumo’s first digital line: Axiom and Theorem.

 

Mike Moffat was the founder of Theta, Theta Digital, and Angstrom, and his audio history covers an impressive list of firsts, including the first standalone DAC, the Theta DSPre, the first use of digital signal processing and bit-perfect digital filter algorithms, the first DTS surround processor, and more.