New Desktop Setup

Communities Audio Hardware & Music
1

Greetings,

I’m soon going to upgrade my PC setup. This setup will serve me mostly for music & gaming(metal, rock, techno D&B etc…) - I do like to have a good amount of BASS(wouldn’t call myself a basshead). I would like to hear your opinions about my choice:

DAC : Schiit Modi 2 - 100$
Amp: Schiit Magni 2 - 100$

Headphones:
Audeze LCD-2r2 pre-fazor - 700$ (second hand from someone I know)
Or
Beyerdynamic DT990 600omh - 300$

Misc:
Schiit PYST RCA - 20$.

Disclaimer - I don’t own any of this yet.

I’m pretty much set on the DAC & AMP combo the main debate is about the headphones. Ultimately, I always wanted the LCD-2, but I read a lot of reviews say that the bass isn’t too strong(I think that’s the appropriate term) on them. I do have the budget for them right now and I don’t think an opportunity like this will rise again anytime soon. I’ve read a lot of good things about the DT990s and I think its a good headset but for me it won’t be the “I’m there” headset.

So what would be your advice\opinion on this matter?
let me know!

2

Ok, here is the deal.

The LCD2 if you have the money, the LCD2 is the way to go. They are good enough that they can easily be your first and last pair of headphones ever.

The catch is that they are picky about what amps work well with them.

Most people know that planar headphones need a lot of power, but what people forget is they need a fairly decent amount of current.

So what happens is that people get a higher wattage amp, but it lacks current. Thats why people say they LCD2s lack bass sometimes. It's because the fools have pansy ass amps that were only truly meant to drive dynamic headphones.

The truth of the matter here is that the magni and modi will technically provide enough power to the headphones, but it will not give you the bass you are looking for.

I would completely skip the dac, and get a used schiit lyr. I found this one for you http://www.head-fi.org/t/766344/wts-schiit-lyr-1

The lyr is going to be a much better (although not perfect) match up for your amp.

Later on, you can get a dac (and to be honest, the modi 2 is not all the better than onboard audio anyways)

3

I just bought the Magni 2 at the beginning of this month and have to RMA mine, having a weird connection problem.

4

Yeah, schiit is having a huge issue right now with QC as well. They just can't get their schiit straight : D

1 Like
5

Will Schiit Lyr 1 be sufficient? It's a bit out of my budget but I guess I can manage. note that my on board audio really sucks balls.

6

Yeah, the lyr 1 and 2 are not all that different, so it really does not matter.

And hey, do not forget to haggle. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS haggle.

And what motherboard do you have?

7

ECS A780GM-A

And you own/owned a Lyr?

8

No. But that is because I use electrostatic headphones and I need a special amp.

However there are fairly regular audio meet ups where I live. I have been able to AB the lyr 1 and 2 directly.

The circuit is hardly different. The lyr 2 is the lyr 1 with some better parts. But the reality of it is that it does not matter. The amp will blow your mind and in 2-3 years you will upgrade anyways.

9

That may be true(tough 260$ - was hoping to stick around with them some more), but what about the DAC? as I've mentioned my MB is kinda old. I plugged in some 32ohms and some 50ohms into it and had to set the volume to like 20% otherwise it made my eardrums explode. Still, even at 20% there was an annoying hiss sound.

10

Don't worry too much. Some day you will sell your lyr 1. Audio gear gets a fair amount of resale value.

Believe me, I am not here to blow your cash. You will be fine.

As for the dac............meh. Again, the simply truth is that the modi is not much better than modern mobos.

Granted you have a fairly old mobo, but when christmas comes along, just look for a used creative titanium HD sound card for like 40-50 bucks. Or maybe even a asus dgx new for 40-50 bucks.

ORRRRRRRRR you could save up and look for a used cambridge audio dac magic for like 150 bucks.

Here is the simple truth. The LDC2 headphones are headphones that you will have for life. So long as you are not 90 years old on your death bed, you WILL have time to play around with these headphones.

Just get what ever you can afford, sit back and enjoy what you can. Your collection will grow in time. : D

11

I Am 91! haha ;D
Thing is its a Tube Amp and its my first setup, I just found a about 999 new threads about tube rolling
and tube saver sockets etc etc...
therefore tubes start too seem kind of overwhelming.

12

I have to Beyerdynamic DT990 250ohm headphones and love them. They were 170 when I bought them off amazon. (I know you are looking at the 600ohm variant). The LCD2 headphones as everyone else is saying will be the best headphones you will probably ever buy.

13

Tubes are simple, people are dumb. Don't worry.

All you need to know for now is that the lyr works well enough with the LCD2 to give you your bass and is cheap enough for you to afford.

The lyr is NOT the amp for you to learn tubes on. In fact the lyr pretty much has tubes only to make the amp sound a little bit warmer than the asgard. It is not even a true tube amp.

14

what is a "Orange Globe 1967" wasn't able to find too much info about it.
his offering to sell the amp with two of those for 280/ 240 for just them amp.

15

TL:DNR ..... Do not bother, just haggle the amp down and get something else from ebay. There are plenty of decent GE 6DJ8s for like 20 bucks. Or you could offer him 260 for the lot.

They are good tubes, but they are not worth 40 bucks IMO.

The Orange Globe 1967 tubes are made by a company called amperex. They are decent tubes, but that's about it.

A lot of head-fiers have blown the up to be like THE best tube for the lyr which simply is not true.

You see what has happened is that a few people who roll tubes all day long mentioned that they really liked them. So naturally 1200 other stupid morons decided to follow suit without doing much research. They basically bought the orange globes and ONLY the orange globes.

So when they swap out their crappy stock tubes with some decent ones, everyone starts to rave about them.

Here is what the golden globes have to offer. They are pretty clean sounding. Tubes can sometimes be microphonic and add noise to the system. This means that your headphones will produce a ringing sound which is obviously bad.

Most tubes do not do this. Only a select few do.

But amperex was commissioned by the us military to make some like ultra low noise tubes specifically for military use in things like radar, and telecommunication.

Tubes like these get the prefix JAN which stands for joint army navy.

Thats what these tubes are. They are nothing more than a very fine tuned tube with above average specs.

But the kicker is, almost every stinking company made JAN tubes as well. GE, RCA, WE, Philips, Tung Sol, and so on all made JAN tubes.

You could even buy special tubes that have even less noise that were designed for computers.

I mean the list goes on and on and on.

But the truth of the matter is that the lyr really does not benefit that much from different tubes. Its more of a fun thing to do than anything else.

Here are the 4 sets of tubes you should be looking for period...end of story.

GE 6DJ8 (JAN would be nice), Mullard 12ax7, Telefunken 12ax7 smooth plate, RCA 6DJ8.

BTW, 12ax7, 6DJ8, 6922, ECC88, E88CC are all interchangeable. They are all practically the same tube. The differences in the naming scheme have to deal with patents and other annoying crap.

16

I see, no need for TL;DRs I'm actually looking for as much information as possible.
2 questions :
Is there anywhere else I can look for used Lyr execpt from Amazon and Head-fi?
In case I won't find one that meets my budget, is there any other amp/dac (or just AMP) for upto 200$?

17

Well obviously there is ebay, but there is also audiogon. Normally audiogon handles speakers gear, but sometimes they have headphone amps.

You could potentially get away with a parasound Zdac. It is a very nice dac with a decent headphone amp built in. The headphone amp outputs enough power, but I doubt it will be bassy enough for you.

The only good thing about this plan is that the dac is actually good enough where you would not need to upgrade it in your lifetime.

And this one on ebay is reasonably cheap enough where it will not break the bank.

18

I found none that ship to Israel unfortunately.
How about the Schiit Vali? will it work well with the LCD-2?

19

Oh isreal?

Welp......you are screwed. Just get the magni and modi and hope for the best.

Save up and try and get your hands on a burson soloist.

The vali is shit by the way and breaks a lot.

Man that sucks, there just isn't a very big audio market where you are. I was helping someone from egypt and he had to have one of his friends in england buy him stuff and send it down.

20

Well I do have a friend who is going to the U.S. in a few days, that's how I intended to get the M&M stack.
Thing is the M&M stack is small & light so I its not that much of a drag to ask him to get it for me. but say Lyr for example that's already almost 3kg. I'm open for anything the size/weight(and budget!) of an M&M stack.
Also, what about these?



http://www.head-fi.org/products/bravo-audio-tube-amplifier-v3