Would love some advice on these products

[TheOne]

So I have a Schiit stack - Asgard 2/Bifrost Uber USB. And my headphones are Mad Dog Pro's. I got my amp/dac before I learned of this company.

Now that I bought this, I am hearing a lot about Bottlehead products. And I have a few questions...

1. What amp do you folks have that would be in the same ballpark cost wise as the Asgard 2 and would drive my headphones real well.

2. What amp would you say equals or exceeds the Lyr 2?

3. What amp would you say would be a good upgrade to what I have, would be a tube amp at least at the level of a Lyr 2, still without breaking the bank.

4. Would one of the tube amps from here pair nicely with my Bifrost? Or am I looking at having to do something else for the DAC?

I've been thinking about getting a Lyr 2 to try tubes. I've heard it is a good step up from my Asgard. But before I do that, I thought I'd look into what is available here. Also, I would want to use the service to have things built. I am not handy in that way and do not want to take the chance of screwing things up.

If anyone can also point me to info on "why Bottlehead products" I'd sure love to read more. And especially if the info is about the finished products. It is not an advantage to me that these are do it yourself products. Would love info comparing these to Schiit and other popular amps.

By the way, not interested in portable. It will live on my desktop, connect to my Bifrost which connects to my computer via USB.

I hope that is enough info. Any questions, feel free to ask. And thanks for any help.

[galyons]

Welcome to the forum.  Can't be of much help, sorry. Could find no technical info on your headphones.  You need to match the headphone impedance to the amp.  As well as understand the efficiency of the headphones.

The Schiit products are good.  No way to compare, nor should that be done on a manufacturer's forum.  All of the BH headphone amps will "play well" with the Bifrost.

I would suggest some time spent on HeadFi. There is a great deal of user input on a large variety of products.  There is a thread almost exclusive to BH gear.  https://www.head-fi.org/t/683012/bottlehead-amplifier-discussion-comparison-thread-crack-sex-mainline
67 pages of posts in the thread.

You understand that BH headphone amp are kits.  That is good to know!  There is a BH endorsed 3rd party builder that does a great job. Look here: http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?board=42.0

Peruse the Crack, Sex and Mainline forums here as well.

Cheers,
Geary

[Doc B.]

Thanks, Geary. That's just about exactly how I would have responded.

[borism]

I believe the Mad Dog Pros have a 50 ohm impedance but I don't know the efficiency. This may preclude pairing with the Crack.

[Doc B.]

Yes, S.E.X. Amp and Mainline are the two choices that will work well with 50 ohm headphones. Either one should have sufficient power, S.E.X. will for certain.

[TheOne]

The price of SEX is up there when you factor in the cost of building it. (but then again, I guess it is always up there, so maybe it's a good analogy. lol)

I do spend a lot of time on Head-fi but thought maybe it would be best to come to the source.

I do think Crack would not power the phones well.

Will go have another look at SEX.

Thanks for your help.

[Doc B.]

You are probably selling yourself short in thinking that you couldn't build it yourself. We've spent years making these kits very approachable, precisely because it lets people get exceptional sonic quality for much less than they would have to pay for preconstructed gear of comparable quality.

[TheOne]

Thanks Doc, you may be right.

With some nerve damage in my hands and a general lack of patience, I'm not sure I could do something at the level of a SEX. But will keep those thoughts in mind.

[Grainger49]

Do you have a friend who can solder? 

Watching him assemble a kit for you will help.  You can work for a few hours, listen, chat, go to lunch and work for a few more hours.

[TheOne]

Interesting idea. I have an electrician friend.

So if I did this, which is the best amp you have to build. SEX or... ?

Is there one that is in the same league as the Lyr 2 or better? Now cost is less of an issue.

[Grainger49]

I think the SEX kit is a good start.  It drives headphones well.  It can drive efficient (sensitive) speakers well also.  But it Doesn't drive Advents and lower sensitivity speakers well. 

It has all the elements that will give you some idea of how things work.  A good AC to DC power supply, tubes with a driver and output tube in the same piece of glass.  That is kind of handy.  It has DC heaters, it is Parafeed, that means a capacitor blocks the DC to the output transformer.  The high voltage supply (B+) is a voltage doubler. 

It is packed with things that you can learn about.  The manual is well written, pictures for each step and calls out what part of the amp you are working on.  That is, there is "Heater Supply Wiring" in bold before the wiring that takes the heater voltage to the tubes.  Later on the bold heading is "DC Heater Supply" and that takes AC voltage from the transformer, rectifies it with diodes and filters it to be smooth.

That would be my vote for a good kit to ease you into kit building.

[JamieMcC]

From reading the forums and comparing the few impressions of those who have had both the first Lyr and the Crack the consensus seems to be the Crack has the edge when driving high impedance phones like the HD650. But the Lyr is also very good and more versatile in that it can drive a wider range of headphones including planar magnetics and low impedance phones much more competently.

I can only add having both the Crack and now the Sex the that I find the Sex to be a superb amplifier with a sonic ability noticeably a few steps above the Crack and it can also drive a much wider range of headphones and sounds very competent when hooked up to a pair of speaker its ability here as been a very present surprise.