Thread for all Schiit speaker amps. Maybe Ragnarok should be included as well.
Started this thread to have a place to talk about the Tyr which I picked up a couple months ago. Here are some pictures:
Will work on some impressions
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Looking forward to your impressions. Interested in hearing your thoughts on how the Susvaras sound off the Tyrs. This has been a combo I’ve been considering jumping up to from my mono aegirs (my next amp step with susvaras either being the Tyrs, Violectric V550 Pro, or potentially the upcoming Holo Audio Bliss).
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That’s been the pairing that has really impressed me especially after rolling the tubes in the Freya. Finally getting some serious low end impact and rumble. It wasn’t lacking in bass before but the control and grip the Susvara has now is addicting. It’s still a softer sounding headphone on these amps compared to the expanse, 1266, even atrium. But I didn’t really want to use the Susvara with wa33 elite and am much happier with the pairing with the Tyrs. The only thing you might lose a bit of when compared to the wa33 is detail and imaging but otherwise I prefer the Tyrs for this headphone.
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Could you elaborate on this?
Just wasn’t the most engaging pairing. I got much more enjoyment out of 1266, lcd-5, atrium, and lcd-4 with that amp. Perhaps changing the dac could make the susvara and wa33 elite pairing better or rolling some tubes but in the configuration I have it in I would reach for other headphones over susvara.
It seemed like the WA33 made the susvara more genre specific like it sounded good on acoustic, soundtrack, jazz stuff but on pop, rap, electronic it felt lacking. Adding the tyrs in, either with wa33 as the pre or with freya as the pre I found the susvara to have more low end energy and sound more engaging with all types of music.
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I’ll go read some more about your DAC as I don’t know enough about it to do the mental gymnastics of comparing it to what might be my experience with my Wavedream. Thanks!
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Ok, here are my impressions:
I have been wanting to try speaker amps with headphones especially mono blocks and my FOMO got the better of me leading to this purchase. However with the price for 2 Tyrs being 3200 just a tad more than 1 AHB2 which seems to get used in monoblocks a lot, the Tyrs were the easier choice for me. I am using these exclusively with headphones and using a Zynsonix adapter box with has a 0dB and -12dB attenuated output which is nice to have with more sensitive headphones. I’ve run directly off the speaker taps as well but the Zynsonix is much more convenient and doesn’t seem to be hurting the sound quality at all.
Headphones used with the amp include 1266, expanse, LCD-4, Atrium, 800S, 580 Precision, Susvara, and Borealis. The ones I use the most are expanse and atrium followed by 1266 and Susvara.
The two amps that are my references before the Tyrs are the Flux Volot (dual mono class A headphone amp) and the WA33 Elite (stock tubes + emission labs rectifier, balanced, push pull, class A, headphone amp and preamp). My source is the Bricasti MC1 with network input connected to Roon. Power conditioners are Power Plant 3 and Puritan 156.
I would describe the Volot as having 3d, expansive staging and good imaging, slam is excellent, but bass amount feels lacking at times. It does not have the most body to the sound however the detail and even (not emphasized in one place) sound signature is nice.
The WA33 Elite is a thicker sounding amp with more cohesive imaging, I would call this holographic. Slam and low end quality is very strong and plentiful. Vocals are a bit forward and intimate. Top end is extended and airy. It’s a very detailed amp with a slight midrange emphasis. The bass is great too and the overall sound provides a smooth but resolving listening experience.
I’ve used the Tyrs with the WA33 as the preamp and the Freya+ as the preamp. This will focus on the sound with the Freya as the preamp as that’s what I’ve used the most and the rolled tubes (NOS Philips 7062) in the Freya made it sound better than the pre outs on the WA33. The Tyrs have a similar width of soundstage as the Volot and WA33 do. The depth on the Tyrs is fine but not super deep. I’m not even sure I’ve heard a very deep stage before I just know the most 3d thing I heard was WA33 and LCD-5. Anyways, the soundstage is big and never feels closed in. Imaging is very good, maybe not as holographic as the WA33 on it’s own but it’s close. The main thing I enjoy with the Tyrs over my two other reference amps is the sense of weight and impact to the sound. Instruments and vocals have more substance to them, and the slam and low end punch is amazing. I’m a bass head so more bass, especially bass that is powerful without sounding boomy is usually what I notice first when listening to a new amp or source component. I think the top end of the Tyrs is slightly less emphasized and sparkly than it is on the WA33 and definitely softer than the Volot. But it helps with reducing fatigue.
In terms of usability. The Tyrs run very cool which is not quite what I was expecting with them. They get slightly warm to the touch after they’ve been on for awhile but not as warm as my dac gets. Makes for a good all season amp even in the summer since it doesn’t heat up my room much. The build is fine but the case rings a bit if you tap on it and it doesn’t feel as dense or well made with soft edges like the Bricasti dac does. I would compare the build to something like the powerplant where it feels very solid but some parts of the case work feel / look a little cheap. The power switch on the back is moderately annoying but you can also just leave them on in standby via the switch in front if you don’t want to reach around back to turn them off completely. Transformer noise is for the most part silent. Sometimes there’s a bit when the amp turns on but it settles down quickly.
That’s what comes to mind now about my experience with the Tyrs over the past couple months. Let me know if you have any other questions.
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I know you can run a balanced XLR cable to a Schiit Vidar and use it as a monoblock. What I’m curious about is if you could use that feature to bi-amp a speaker instead. There’s no switch or anything on the Vidar so what it must be doing in monoblock operation is sending the positive leg of the balanced input to one channel and the negative leg to the other channel. Then you connect your speaker across both channels to get double the power.
But what if you connected both pairs of terminals on your bi-amp ready speaker to both outputs? You would have to invert one of the pairs of cables because they would be out of phase. Other than that, would this work?
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Or you could just split the input and feed it to both the left and right channels….
I’d personally ask Schiit first before trying what you’re suggesting, but it probably would work.
Bi-Amping is difficult to “get right” FWIW, I ran a separate 1000W class D amp into my speakers bass drivers for a while, it was difficult to match volumes, and even when they were matched, tweaking the incoming volume at the pre amp would unmatch them.
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lil update on my Tyrs, one of them has a noise issue where you can hear a faint buzz through whatever it’s plugged into (not mechanical hum). Doesn’t matter what volume my pre is at (or even if there is no source plugged into the Tyr at all), the buzzing persists. I tried changing to an outlet on a separate circuit, slightly tightening the transformer and choke screws, switching fuses, plugging it into different conditioners/no conditioner, direct connection to a speaker (taking Zynsonix box out of the equation) all to no avail.
So I’ve reached out to Schiit and boxed up the noisy Tyr. I trust they’ll get me sorted out, it’s just a little frustrating to go through this right after getting everything set up again lmao. thus us life. Fortunately it’s just one of the Tyrs, unfortunately they’re monoblocks so my system will yet again be out of service until I get the replacement or fixed Tyr. Guess it’s back to using my Maxwell’s for now (I’m really starting to consider investing in a backup AIO system just so I can keep using my stuff when things like this happen haha).
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Just got my “fixed” Tyr back today. I guess the +/- 51v regulators needed to be replaced according to the repair sheet. I’m just glad they were able to confirm the noise, and that I’m not crazy lol. After plugging it in I put my ear up to the tweeter and noticed that there is still a faint buzz which is unfortunate (especially when I can put my ear right up to whatever speaker my other amp is hooked up to and hear no buzz, just a bit of white noise). However, the upside is that this noise is significantly quieter than it was before and is only coming from the tweeter and not the midbass driver as well. It’s definitely at that threshold of being quiet enough that I probably won’t send it back again, and it’s not noticeable at all when music is playing, but it is a little disappointing. If the buzz gets any louder though I’ll definitely send it back again.
For now, I’m glad to have the Tyrs back in my system. Despite the issues I’ve run into (with one of them), they sound great and are a definite step above the aegirs for SQ. I no longer have to turn my speakers up as loud as I did with the aegirs, and the improvements in detail, stage, punch, and vocals are really nice. I’ll definitely be keeping these in my system for a while unless something goes wrong again (5yr warrantee is reassuring though), or if I decide to go a completely different direction with my system.
Anyways, still waiting on a couple of other packages and will update in the purchases thread when they arrive. Hope y’all are having a nice weekend!
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Update time! I just got my Tyr back today (hopefully for the last time lol). Hooked everything up, turned it on, and BLAM! no buzz. Not even when I put my ear right up to my tweeter. Using headphones through my converter box netted the same results, sweet sweet silence.
According to the repair sheet, the buzzing sound on my old unit was re-confirmed and says it failed their APX555 test. But because it was NFF (no fault found?) they replaced the unit, which I confirmed checking the serial number on the back. So I guess my old buzzing boi was a lemon. Which I recognize as a thing that can happen with any electronics, but it’s never fun to receive one lol.
Also, I just noticed that the new repair sheet says it failed their APX555 test, when my previous repair sheet said it “checks 100%”. I guess that just reinforces my suspicion that they went “shrugs good enough” the first time around. Which I’m sure it would be “good enough”, if I was like 95% of other users using Tyrs to drive less efficient speakers, and definitely not with headphones. But they were able to make things right in the end, and that’s all that matters.
Now I can get back to listening to music instead of always having something to troubleshoot in my system lol. Hope y’all have a good weekend!
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