Schiit Lyr 2 Question

[tomoki]

Hey,

 

I don't know if anyone owns the Schiit Lyr 2 but any input from anyone is appreciated. I was looking at the Valhalla 2 because I was thinking if I invested on the Vali 2, I'd probably feel like I'm not going far enough to power my HD6xx. I am thinking of visiting a local store called "Headphone Bar" located in Vancouver to see what the Lyr 2 is like. I would order from Schiit but our Canadian dollar is like plebescent. Headphone Bar doesn't have the Valhalla 2 unfortunately. I'll go there to see if they would make the order and see what the final costs are too. My questions are:

 

How does the Lyr 2 compare to the Valhalla 2? 

 

Would the Lyr 2 be overkill for HD6xx? 

 

Thanks. 

 

I'm most likely going to go for the Valhalla 2. I just need to wait for the right moment when our Canadian dollar isn't so crap. 

 

 

[Guest]

The Valhalla is a better pairing. It is a SET tube amp whereas the Lyr is a hybrid. The Lyr is more suited to planars, in general. The pure tube Valhalla works better with the high Z Sennheisers.

 

I would suggest the Jotunheim before the Lyr.

[KaminKevCrew]

1 minute ago, SSL said:

The Valhalla is a better pairing. It is a SET tube amp whereas the Lyr is a hybrid. The Lyr is more suited to planars, in general.

If OP is feeling adventurous, they should try some crack, maybe even with speedballs.

[tomoki]

1 minute ago, SSL said:

The Valhalla is a better pairing. It is a SET tube amp whereas the Lyr is a hybrid. The Lyr is more suited to planars, in general. The pure tube Valhalla works better with the high Z Sennheisers.

 

I would suggest the Jotunheim before the Lyr.

Awesome, thanks for the reply! 

 

What are planars exactly? I think the HD800s may be planars but I'm not sure. When people talk about LCD-2's and LCD-3's I'm like...this headphone is like the cost of a high end desktop. 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, tomoki said:

Awesome, thanks for the reply! 

 

What are planars exactly? I think the HD800s may be planars but I'm not sure. When people talk about LCD-2's and LCD-3's I'm like...this headphone is like the cost of a high end desktop. 

 

No. Planar is short for planar dynamic, also known by the proprietary term "orthodynamic" or simply ortho. Such drivers consist of an ultrathin membrane to which a thin electrical trace is bonded. When the membrane is suspended adjacent to a magnet array and supplied with current, you get a dynamic driver. A planar dynamic driver, in fact. Because the magnetic field is applied over a "planar" area.

 

Audeze and HiFiMan are examples of planar headphone makers.

 

Planar drivers are in general more boutique (less mainstream) than conventional moving-coil dynamic driver headphones.

[tomoki]

Just now, SSL said:

 

No. Planar is short for planar dynamic, also known by the proprietary term "orthodynamic" or simply ortho. Such drivers consist of an ultrathin membrane to which a thin electrical trace is bonded. When the membrane is suspended adjacent to a magnet array and supplied with current, you get a dynamic driver. A planar dynamic driver, in fact.

 

Audeze and HiFiMan are examples of planar headphone makers.

 

Planar drivers are in general more boutique (less mainstream) than conventional moving-coil dynamic driver headphones.

Whoa that was like a blast of condensed info haha. Why do the HD800s cost as much as those planar Audeze and  HiFiMan headphones then if they're not the same?? 

 

Btw, Schiit Vali 2 or Valhalla 2 for HD6xx? I am leaning toward Valhalla 2 still but in terms of listening experience I'd like to know your thoughts! 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, tomoki said:

Whoa that was like a blast of condensed info haha. Why do the HD800s cost as much as those planar Audeze and  HiFiMan headphones then if they're not the same?? 

 

Btw, Schiit Vali 2 or Valhalla 2 for HD6xx? I am leaning toward Valhalla 2 still but in terms of listening experience I'd like to know your thoughts! 

 

Price inflation. The HD800 uses dynamic drivers, but they are special "ring" drivers because the diaphragm is anchored on both the outside and inside edges, creating a ring. There are pictures online.

 

Broadly speaking, differences here with the amps are likely to be subtle. The quality of your music matters. The Vali will generally be good, just not as good as Valhalla - however the advantage is that it has a single tube, so rolling a better or different one is easy and cheap, provided you don't get carried away and spend more than the price of the amp on tubes.

 

Quantitatively, I'd expect the Valhalla to have a bit better soundstage and low-level information. I'm not an expert on these amps first-hand, though; I have the Magni/Modi 2 Uber stack myself.

[tomoki]

4 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

Price inflation. The HD800 uses dynamic drivers, but they are special "ring" drivers because the diaphragm is anchored on both the outside and inside edges, creating a ring. There are pictures online.

 

Broadly speaking, differences here with the amps are likely to be subtle. The quality of your music matters. The Vali will generally be good, just not as good as Valhalla - however the advantage is that it has a single tube, so rolling a better or different one is easy and cheap, provided you don't get carried away and spend more than the price of the amp on tubes.

 

Quantitatively, I'd expect the Valhalla to have a bit better soundstage and low-level information. I'm not an expert on these amps first-hand, though; I have the Magni/Modi 2 Uber stack myself.

 

Oh wow. I've seen them make it from the video Linus took a while back and that was fairly cool! In terms of sound, I'm going to assume Planars are much better... in some way ... 

 

Yup I have always listened to albums but not necessarily FLAC files. I don't think my current headphones HD598s are good enough to make out the difference or if any headphones can make out the difference (& if it's not a myth that humans can't hear the difference ofc). Yeah! You recommended me the Vali 2 from a few days back and I've been pondering because I looked at the Vali 2 and was like... but the Valhalla 2 looks so much more badass.. and people say it sounds a lot better. Hence, that's why I wanted to know if it is going to be worth choosing the Valhalla 2. I wouldn't want to purchase the Vali 2 thinking I'll need an upgrade in 2 years like I am doing with my current headphones. 

 

I'm not questioning your judgment about the Vali 2 for new starters I trust that you mean it when you say it's one of the best tube amps out there for the price paid. 

 

Yeah I read that on some forum I google'd about too. The better soundstage is what I'd enjoy. I love a large soundstage! Just makes everything feel so much nicer haha. 

 

Thanks for taking your time explaining things to me. I'm a completely scrub at this

[KaminKevCrew]

31 minutes ago, tomoki said:

 

Oh wow. I've seen them make it from the video Linus took a while back and that was fairly cool! In terms of sound, I'm going to assume Planars are much better... in some way ... 

Planars are generally extremely good at the low end. If you ever look at the frequency response of a planar headphone, it's generally totally ruler flat all the way down (Example) to the lowest registers. However, Planar drivers also generally have some trouble with the high end, due to the resonant frequency of the ultra-thin diaphragm (the diaphragm in planar headphones generally weighs so little that it ends up weighing less than the air it displaces.) But, planars are also generally power hungry monsters - the most notable example of this is probably the Hifiman HE-6, which started the whole "Hey, let's hook my headphones up to a low power speaker amp" thing, and that's part of the reason that an HE-6 in good condition is so rare - people blew them up. One other negative of planar drivers is that they are incredibly fragile. On some headphones, the act of putting them on with music playing can create enough of a pressure differential between the inside and outside of the diaphragm that you'll literally tear through it. These make the headphones totally unusable, and the only way to fix it is to send them back to the manufacturer.

 

However, Dynamic drivers typically have a better high end than planar drivers, although they can suffer in the low end, as it's difficult to get a controlled excursion for the super low frequencies with dynamic drivers, without sacrificing detail and clarity in the mids and highs. In the particular case of the HD800/s, sound stage is the biggest draw. The HD800 probably has the best sound stage of any headphone, ever. Bar none. Not even electrostatic headphones can compete in that particular category. That being said, the non-s version of the HD800 was generally considered to be a bright headphone that often struggled with the low end, although according to some, there are amps that make the HD800 sound like it's ruler flat, while still retaining the amazing sound stage. I've never experienced that in person, however, so it may just be hearsay.

 

Since I assume you don't know what electrostats are, I'll do a little write up on those as well. Electrostats are kind of the holy grail of headphones, for most people (barring some EXTREMELY rare headphones from people like Sony - namely the MDR R10, and the Qualia) The current top 3 headphones in the world (generally accepted by those that have heard them) are all electrostats - the Sennheiser HE-1, the Stax SR009 and the Sennheiser Orpheus. The Sennheiser setups will set you back $55,000, and $35,000 respectively, and the latter would only be used (they came out in the 90s, I think.) Anyway, Electrostatic headphones have a diaphragm that's insanely thin, which has a permanent charge on it, and that is suspended between to grills on either side. Those grills are charged with hundreds of volts, and the resulting electromagnetic field makes the diaphragm move. Electrostats are often referred to as very fast headphones.

 

The last commonly used type of driver is the Balanced Armature driver, which is used almost exclusively in IEMs (although Final Audio did do a dynamic headphone with a Balanced Armature in it, for some reason) and I won't get into those, since this isn't really a discussion about in ears.

[tomoki]

11 minutes ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Planars are generally extremely good at the low end. If you ever look at the frequency response of a planar headphone, it's generally totally ruler flat all the way down (Example) to the lowest registers. However, Planar drivers also generally have some trouble with the high end, due to the resonant frequency of the ultra-thin diaphragm (the diaphragm in planar headphones generally weighs so little that it ends up weighing less than the air it displaces.) But, planars are also generally power hungry monsters - the most notable example of this is probably the Hifiman HE-6, which started the whole "Hey, let's hook my headphones up to a low power speaker amp" thing, and that's part of the reason that an HE-6 in good condition is so rare - people blew them up. One other negative of planar drivers is that they are incredibly fragile. On some headphones, the act of putting them on with music playing can create enough of a pressure differential between the inside and outside of the diaphragm that you'll literally tear through it. These make the headphones totally unusable, and the only way to fix it is to send them back to the manufacturer.

 

However, Dynamic drivers typically have a better high end than planar drivers, although they can suffer in the low end, as it's difficult to get a controlled excursion for the super low frequencies with dynamic drivers, without sacrificing detail and clarity in the mids and highs. In the particular case of the HD800/s, sound stage is the biggest draw. The HD800 probably has the best sound stage of any headphone, ever. Bar none. Not even electrostatic headphones can compete in that particular category. That being said, the non-s version of the HD800 was generally considered to be a bright headphone that often struggled with the low end, although according to some, there are amps that make the HD800 sound like it's ruler flat, while still retaining the amazing sound stage. I've never experienced that in person, however, so it may just be hearsay.

 

Since I assume you don't know what electrostats are, I'll do a little write up on those as well. Electrostats are kind of the holy grail of headphones, for most people (barring some EXTREMELY rare headphones from people like Sony - namely the MDR R10, and the Qualia) The current top 3 headphones in the world (generally accepted by those that have heard them) are all electrostats - the Sennheiser HE-1, the Stax SR009 and the Sennheiser Orpheus. The Sennheiser setups will set you back $55,000, and $35,000 respectively, and the latter would only be used (they came out in the 90s, I think.) Anyway, Electrostatic headphones have a diaphragm that's insanely thin, which has a permanent charge on it, and that is suspended between to grills on either side. Those grills are charged with hundreds of volts, and the resulting electromagnetic field makes the diaphragm move. Electrostats are often referred to as very fast headphones.

 

The last commonly used type of driver is the Balanced Armature driver, which is used almost exclusively in IEMs (although Final Audio did do a dynamic headphone with a Balanced Armature in it, for some reason) and I won't get into those, since this isn't really a discussion about in ears.

Thank you for taking your time and effort to write and explain all of this to me! I appreciate it! I am like a blank piece of paper with a few scribbles so it's very nice to read all this. 

 

I have heard of the Sennheiser Orpheus and yes... it costs as much as a car. I was like wow. I watched this one video of a guy using the pair of headphones and he was basically crying probably due to how nice it sounds. 

 

Is the Sennheiser HD800 S version a lot better than the default HD800? I know the S came out not too long ago. 

 

I'd really like to learn a lot more about ALL of this stuff because whenever I'm not gaming, I'm listening to music of all sorts and working on something. Headphones are slowly becoming a bigger part of my life now and I'd like to learn as much as possible to avoid making stupid mistakes and decisions. Also, it feels like there's misinformation around all the time. I've read that impedance doesn't affect how hard it is to drive a pair of headphones and I've heard the reverse of that. Now it makes me wonder if it's impedance, sensitivity and some other factor that determines how hard it is to drive a pair of headphones. 

 

That being said, other than the fact of how each amp sounds, how do you know how well one amp drives over another? What do you have to factor in to know? 

 

I have so many questions it's like... I don't expect any one person to answer it all but probably over time, read as the forums get updated and ask only the immediate questions I have about things I'd like to have in person such as the Schiit Valhalla 2. 

 

It feels as if the audio world is full of wonder to me right now but at the same time, there's so much opinion because people hear differently. It's just a little hard to say what's a hardline objective opinion and I think that's what makes it interesting ...because I'd like to try out a lot of these headphones, amps and dacs to be able to tell for myself. 

[KaminKevCrew]

24 minutes ago, tomoki said:

Thank you for taking your time and effort to write and explain all of this to me! I appreciate it! I am like a blank piece of paper with a few scribbles so it's very nice to read all this. 

 

I have heard of the Sennheiser Orpheus and yes... it costs as much as a car. I was like wow. I watched this one video of a guy using the pair of headphones and he was basically crying probably due to how nice it sounds. 

 

Is the Sennheiser HD800 S version a lot better than the default HD800? I know the S came out not too long ago. 

 

I'd really like to learn a lot more about ALL of this stuff because whenever I'm not gaming, I'm listening to music of all sorts and working on something. Headphones are slowly becoming a bigger part of my life now and I'd like to learn as much as possible to avoid making stupid mistakes and decisions. Also, it feels like there's misinformation around all the time. I've read that impedance doesn't affect how hard it is to drive a pair of headphones and I've heard the reverse of that. Now it makes me wonder if it's impedance, sensitivity and some other factor that determines how hard it is to drive a pair of headphones. 

 

That being said, other than the fact of how each amp sounds, how do you know how well one amp drives over another? What do you have to factor in to know? 

 

I have so many questions it's like... I don't expect any one person to answer it all but probably over time, read as the forums get updated and ask only the immediate questions I have about things I'd like to have in person such as the Schiit Valhalla 2. 

 

It feels as if the audio world is full of wonder to me right now but at the same time, there's so much opinion because people hear differently. It's just a little hard to say what's a hardline objective opinion and I think that's what makes it interesting ...because I'd like to try out a lot of these headphones, amps and dacs to be able to tell for myself. 

The main thing with the Sennheiser HD800s is that they revised the damping a little bit, so that the treble isn't as harsh. 

 

As for how hard a headphone is to drive, the most important part is the sensitivity. The reason that impedance is important is for something called damping factor. A few links for damping factor: One Two Three

 

The main spec for how well an amp will drive a given pair of headphones is from the power output rating. Generally, this rating will be given at specific load ratings (e.g. 1500mW @32 ohms). For these, you will want to match your headphones' impedance to the load rating that's quoted (or, the closest one that's stated) and that gives you a general idea of how loud a headphone will get on a given amp. Other specs to look out for on solid state equipment are output impedance (important for the aforementioned damping factor), THD (This is really easily demonstrable with speakers - take a pair of speakers, and put a big box between them. The timing of the sound will seem a bit off between channels. That's what has been shown to me as harmonic distortion; I may be wrong on that though. I've never looked up the technical definition of THD). Nothing else jumps off the top of my head in terms of specs, but I'm sure there are a few others worth watching out for.

 

As for objective things, they only tell you so much. For instance, there is no way to measure sound stage. That's part of the wonder and mystique of audio - there's no one right answer, and for some people, a certain pair of headphones will be the absolute end all, and to another, that same pair of headphones will sound like trash. It's all about personal preference. The thing about this that makes it really difficult is that very few of us have thousands of dollars laying around that we can just spend willy nilly on any product that takes our fancy so that we can just try it out and see if we like it. 

 

For instance, I think I'm going to try to get a certain setup going by the end of next January, and hopefully it'll be my endgame for the rest of the year so I don't have to spend more money on this silly hobby! That would be my Laptop running into my Emotiva Stealth DC-1, outputting into the Bottlehead Crack amp, with the speedball upgrade (That's what I was referring to in this post earlier:)

2 hours ago, KaminKevCrew said:

If OP is feeling adventurous, they should try some crack, maybe even with speedballs.

And then that will be running into either my current HD600, or I'll pick up a pair of HD650's, and do some (or all) of the mods that people have done to them over on SBAF, and I think that will be all for me for the time being. Maybe I'll pick up a cheap pair of speakers too, just so I don't always have to be listening to headphones (Oh, I also have a few other pairs of headphones to listen to, so it's not like I'll be exclusively bound to the tubes, but I think it should be an utterly fantastic setup for casual, engaging listening.)

 

If you ever have any questions, feel free to PM me! (that also goes for anyone reading this) I'm generally happy to answer any questions, and I don't judge even if they're a little bit goofy! I promise, I'm a pretty nice guy.

 

If you want the chance to listen to a bunch of headphones, try to find a headphone meet in your area, that's the best place to try out gear that you're curious about. That or an audio/tech expo, but those are generally less accessible for people.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, tomoki said:

I'd really like to learn a lot more about ALL of this stuff because whenever I'm not gaming, I'm listening to music of all sorts and working on something. Headphones are slowly becoming a bigger part of my life now and I'd like to learn as much as possible to avoid making stupid mistakes and decisions. Also, it feels like there's misinformation around all the time. I've read that impedance doesn't affect how hard it is to drive a pair of headphones and I've heard the reverse of that. Now it makes me wonder if it's impedance, sensitivity and some other factor that determines how hard it is to drive a pair of headphones.

 

I have some links in my siggy that may be of use. Beyond that, I'm not a nice guy, so don't pm me, make a thread, I read the 4hum erridai.

[tomoki]

18 hours ago, KaminKevCrew said:

The main thing with the Sennheiser HD800s is that they revised the damping a little bit, so that the treble isn't as harsh. 

 

As for how hard a headphone is to drive, the most important part is the sensitivity. The reason that impedance is important is for something called damping factor. A few links for damping factor: One Two Three

 

The main spec for how well an amp will drive a given pair of headphones is from the power output rating. Generally, this rating will be given at specific load ratings (e.g. 1500mW @32 ohms). For these, you will want to match your headphones' impedance to the load rating that's quoted (or, the closest one that's stated) and that gives you a general idea of how loud a headphone will get on a given amp. Other specs to look out for on solid state equipment are output impedance (important for the aforementioned damping factor), THD (This is really easily demonstrable with speakers - take a pair of speakers, and put a big box between them. The timing of the sound will seem a bit off between channels. That's what has been shown to me as harmonic distortion; I may be wrong on that though. I've never looked up the technical definition of THD). Nothing else jumps off the top of my head in terms of specs, but I'm sure there are a few others worth watching out for.

 

As for objective things, they only tell you so much. For instance, there is no way to measure sound stage. That's part of the wonder and mystique of audio - there's no one right answer, and for some people, a certain pair of headphones will be the absolute end all, and to another, that same pair of headphones will sound like trash. It's all about personal preference. The thing about this that makes it really difficult is that very few of us have thousands of dollars laying around that we can just spend willy nilly on any product that takes our fancy so that we can just try it out and see if we like it. 

 

For instance, I think I'm going to try to get a certain setup going by the end of next January, and hopefully it'll be my endgame for the rest of the year so I don't have to spend more money on this silly hobby! That would be my Laptop running into my Emotiva Stealth DC-1, outputting into the Bottlehead Crack amp, with the speedball upgrade (That's what I was referring to in this post earlier:)

And then that will be running into either my current HD600, or I'll pick up a pair of HD650's, and do some (or all) of the mods that people have done to them over on SBAF, and I think that will be all for me for the time being. Maybe I'll pick up a cheap pair of speakers too, just so I don't always have to be listening to headphones (Oh, I also have a few other pairs of headphones to listen to, so it's not like I'll be exclusively bound to the tubes, but I think it should be an utterly fantastic setup for casual, engaging listening.)

 

If you ever have any questions, feel free to PM me! (that also goes for anyone reading this) I'm generally happy to answer any questions, and I don't judge even if they're a little bit goofy! I promise, I'm a pretty nice guy.

 

If you want the chance to listen to a bunch of headphones, try to find a headphone meet in your area, that's the best place to try out gear that you're curious about. That or an audio/tech expo, but those are generally less accessible for people.

Sorry for the late reply. It was getting late yesterday and I was exhausted from work. 

 

I wonder if the amount of treble in the original Sennheiser HD800 actually makes the sound a little more clear compared to the newly revised HD800S though cause sometimes I feel like treble does come across ....as more clear. Too much and it becomes fuzzy. 

 

That is a lot of reading to do... but seems rather interesting... SO MUCH TO LEARN. 

 

Yeah exactly and I don't really know if no objectivity is a good thing or not. There needs to be a millionaire or billionaire who likes this sorta stuff but are probably like "meh screw forums" and don't care enough. 

 

This is a wonderful hobby. I don't know what you're talking about haha but it's SOOOO EXPENSIVE like... I feel like my wallet is going to bleed if I were to buy the Valhalla 2... since the CAD isn't doing so well against USD. I'm hoping it'll be end-game for me for a long time... the Sennheiser HD6xx + Valhalla 2. 

Oh so that's what you meant about crack and speedball... I was laughing because I didn't understand it and took it literally LOL HAHAHA #scrublife

I've grown to not really like speakers as much... probably because my headphones are so much better than my current speakers. I don't really want to throw away my speakers either just because it's "usable" but in the case of headphones, I wonder why I am able to justify upgrading headphones... I guess it's cause I don't really mind headphones being on my head all the time. I actually feel very comfortable with headphones on all the time. 

 

Hahaha compared to @SSL!!! Jokes aside though, thanks! I see the Little Dot MKIII amp on Massdrop. I'm not going to get it but I'm going like... didn't the Little Dot MKII drop just end? I wonder if people will feel ripped off about that hahaha. 

 

Are headphone meets actually a thing? I am not so certain that I like idea of the trade-off of having other people have their greasy heads over my velour pad headphones... while being able to try theirs. It's like asking to feel gross.... I don't know... THE PRICE TO PAY 

[spwath]

20 hours ago, SSL said:

 

I have some links in my siggy that may be of use. Beyond that, I'm not a nice guy, so don't pm me, make a thread, I read the 4hum erridai.

I feel like you are a lot nicer than when I first met you.

Or I just became smarter and that gave you less reasons to yell at me.

[KaminKevCrew]

3 hours ago, tomoki said:

-snip-

No worries!

 

I think the HD800s is probably still super clear. The HD800 could be a little sibilant sometimes, depending on the song, and from what I've seen, it looks like Sennheiser just took that out.

 

Take your time! This can be a lifelong hobby, so it's not like you need to learn everything right away.

 

The speaker thing is probably mostly because you haven't heard really nice speakers before (If you can avoid it, do so. You think headphones are expensive? Try getting into high end speakers...) I personally really like headphones because it means that I won't be bothering people around me. Since I'm in a dorm, it's especially important.

 

At all the headphone meets I've been to, everyone has been super respectful of gear, and one of the things that's expected is that everyone be freshly washed. Everyone worries about letting greasy people touch their gear, so they tend to all be clean beforehand because greasy gear is no fun. (I feel bad enough if I wear my headphones after a workout or something without showering first - I pretty much never do that to myself, couldn't imagine doing it to someone else.)

[Guest]

4 hours ago, tomoki said:

This is a wonderful hobby. I don't know what you're talking about haha but it's SOOOO EXPENSIVE like... I feel like my wallet is going to bleed if I were to buy the Valhalla 2.

 

 

Thus why I keep pushing the Vali 2. It is easily an endgame amp due to how badly things are priced in the audio world. As a hybrid tube/SS amp it's also going to be a little more versatile than the all-tube Valhalla 2.

 

4 hours ago, tomoki said:

I am not so certain that I like idea of the trade-off of having other people have their greasy heads over my velour pad headphones

 

If I brought my gear to a meet you can be sure I'd have spare pads on my headphones.

[tomoki]

32 minutes ago, KaminKevCrew said:

No worries!

 

I think the HD800s is probably still super clear. The HD800 could be a little sibilant sometimes, depending on the song, and from what I've seen, it looks like Sennheiser just took that out.

 

Take your time! This can be a lifelong hobby, so it's not like you need to learn everything right away.

 

The speaker thing is probably mostly because you haven't heard really nice speakers before (If you can avoid it, do so. You think headphones are expensive? Try getting into high end speakers...) I personally really like headphones because it means that I won't be bothering people around me. Since I'm in a dorm, it's especially important.

 

At all the headphone meets I've been to, everyone has been super respectful of gear, and one of the things that's expected is that everyone be freshly washed. Everyone worries about letting greasy people touch their gear, so they tend to all be clean beforehand because greasy gear is no fun. (I feel bad enough if I wear my headphones after a workout or something without showering first - I pretty much never do that to myself, couldn't imagine doing it to someone else.)

I see...

 

Noooo I want to learn everythingggg ~ Yes it is a lifelong hobby but I wanna drown in knowledge hahaha. I never know when I'll need it. There are too many things to learn and I'm not stopping here  I just don't want to make stupid mistakes. For my first built computer, I was lucky that all the parts I picked originally...were very compatible with each other. My power consumption was right at the PSU's peak efficiency..somehow and everything I actually needed was there for me when I wanted it. I am kind of grateful for that sorta luck and over the years I've learnt more about how the things I picked did more good than bad. I was basically laughing when I learnt about things afterwards because I could've made a slight mistake and boom goes my hardware. I just don't want to make stupid decisions and mistakes with audio ...

 

Oh no I have heard some pretty nice speakers but I don't appreciate it as much as headphones... the feel that headphones brings me ...it's like a sorta buzz feeling that makes my eyes glow with delight just cause it sounds so awesome. And yeah I don't really like bothering people around me... but I use open back headphones anyways cause I start falling asleep when I put on closed back headphones. I'm weird. 

 

That's nice to know haha ~ Gotta order more earpads... 

[tomoki]

8 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

Thus why I keep pushing the Vali 2. It is easily an endgame amp due to how badly things are priced in the audio world. As a hybrid tube/SS amp it's also going to be a little more versatile than the all-tube Valhalla 2.

 

 

If I brought my gear to a meet you can be sure I'd have spare pads on my headphones.

Dammit hahaha but ....it's like that struggle feeling! The Valhalla 2 looks so badass I just can't not look at it and go like "Geez I wonder what that sounds like". 

Yeah why are things so terribly priced in the audio world? Is there some sorta prestige thing going on where they take overly insane amounts of pride in what they do... and then charge people for a "justified" price? Wait... Hybrid tube/SS amp... I guess Asgard 2 is out of question too then. 

 

Hahaha oh gosh I wrote my other reply and then I read "I'd have spare pads on my headphones" ~ well well what a thought. So prepared hahaha 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, tomoki said:

Yeah why are things so terribly priced in the audio world?

 

I think it has to do with what I'd call "audio neurosis" - people become so obsessed with having "the best" that they are willing to throw any amount of money at the latest and greatest. And because audio performance is so subjective and intangible, there is not really a baseline level of sanity to say what makes sense and what doesn't.

 

Things weren't always this way, either. In the headphone world specifically, it was really the HD800 at $1500 that started the age of super-expensive headphones. Up until that point, pretty much only STAX systems commanded multi-thousand dollar price tags. The HD800 showed headphone manufacturers that people were willing to pay big bucks for a regular old dynamic headphone.

 

6 minutes ago, tomoki said:

I guess Asgard 2 is out of question too then

 

No, but the Vali 2 is still a better value. The Asgard 2 is also supposed to be somewhat warm, so it may not be the best  choice for the already warm HD6XX.

[tomoki]

16 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

I think it has to do with what I'd call "audio neurosis" - people become so obsessed with having "the best" that they are willing to throw any amount of money at the latest and greatest. And because audio performance is so subjective and intangible, there is not really a baseline level of sanity to say what makes sense and what doesn't.

 

Things weren't always this way, either. In the headphone world specifically, it was really the HD800 at $1500 that started the age of super-expensive headphones. Up until that point, pretty much only STAX systems commanded multi-thousand dollar price tags. The HD800 showed headphone manufacturers that people were willing to pay big bucks for a regular old dynamic headphone.

 

 

No, but the Vali 2 is still a better value. The Asgard 2 is also supposed to be somewhat warm, so it may not be the best  choice for the already warm HD6XX.

That's exceedingly sad. I mean I slowly became interested in headphones over time but to watch the market skyrocket over headphones as I become more interested in the audio field is just pure torture to my wallet. I still can't justify purchasing a Valhalla 2 yet... I wish Schiit would ship the unit without those crazy shipping rates... not to mention that there are still customs to be paid for. 

 

So... it's all Sennheiser's fault Why they do this to me. 

 

I guess it's back to Vali 2... I just didn't really dig the nipple look ya know? I mean it is what it is and it works. That's really what I'm after for the baseline but it's like... I just worry about having to make an upgrade a year or two down the road. 

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, tomoki said:

That's exceedingly sad. I mean I slowly became interested in headphones over time but to watch the market skyrocket over headphones as I become more interested in the audio field is just pure torture to my wallet. I still can't justify purchasing a Valhalla 2 yet... I wish Schiit would ship the unit without those crazy shipping rates... not to mention that there are still customs to be paid for. 

 

So... it's all Sennheiser's fault Why they do this to me. 

 

I guess it's back to Vali 2... I just didn't really dig the nipple look ya know? I mean it is what it is and it works. That's really what I'm after for the baseline but it's like... I just worry about having to make an upgrade a year or two down the road. 

 

I would argue there would be no "need" for upgrade. If you want to upgrade, well, there's potentially no end to that. Just financial constraint.

 

Where are you shopping for Schiit products? If you're not in the US it is better to use one of their international distributors.

[tomoki]

12 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

I would argue there would be no "need" for upgrade. If you want to upgrade, well, there's potentially no end to that. Just financial constraint.

 

Where are you shopping for Schiit products? If you're not in the US it is better to use one of their international distributors.

Oh... There's no need? I was really just hoping the Valhalla 2 would be end-game for me .... and then just replace the tubes as they wear out. I'm not really the type of person to spend $1000 on a piece of hardware unless maybe it were a graphics card but even so, the highest I've spent on a graphics card was around $350 CAD ...3 years ago for a GTX 660 TI PE OC and I'm still using it. My monitor isn't particularly special; it's 1080p, 60Hz so even if I obtained a beast graphics card, I wouldn't be getting the most of it...especially with an i5 3rd gen. I'm just waiting for my parts to slowly wear out but audio is worth! 

 

I'm shopping from Canada. It's just across the imaginary line but yea... I think there aren't any brokerage fees with FedEX or USPS as I've read. There are import taxes of 12% to where I live. I can't think of any other stuff I may have to pay for...maybe customs? I am uncertain how much that is or if I have to pay for it or...if import taxes include that. #oblivious 

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, tomoki said:

Oh... There's no need? I was really just hoping the Valhalla 2 would be end-game for me

 

Sure it could, but so could the Vali 2. "Need" is subjective here.

 

12 minutes ago, tomoki said:

I'm shopping from Canada. It's just across the imaginary line but yea... I think there aren't any brokerage fees with FedEX or USPS as I've read. There are import taxes of 12% to where I live. I can't think of any other stuff I may have to pay for...maybe customs? I am uncertain how much that is or if I have to pay for it or...if import taxes include that. #oblivious 

 

I meant what website.

[tomoki]

13 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

Sure it could, but so could the Vali 2. "Need" is subjective here.

 

 

I meant what website.

Dammit hahah THIS AUDIO THING THO 

 

Oh just their main website. Schiit USA. I should take a look at their international distributors but they're all much further so I kinda assumed it would be more expensive.