Alriighhhhht I had to take time off from studying a chem exam because hearing the Tyrs could absolutely wait no longer.
So I had one speaker hooked up to the AHB2 and another hooked up to the Tyr for super quick and efficient switching. Let me start by sayin that a single AHB2 has more than enough power to listen to 1.7is in a medium room at moderate levels. Mind you I don't enjoy listening at loud volumes and never once did I feel that a single AHB2 wasn't enough for a pair of 1.7is. The thing is that AHB2 are better at driving low impedance speakers than most amps, so I don't notice it struggling at all. In fact, the AHB2 is god tier at rendering details in the bass region, even on 1.7is. Yes the Tyrs have more power, but I think i was looking for something else than power when I bought these. I think I was looking for flavor or dynamics. As my younger friends would say: the Tyrs slap hard. Yep, right away I think the Tyrs sound more dynamic and quite different from the AHB2. I'm actually starting to understand why certain people like the AHB2 and others don't. The AHB2 is quite lean in comparison and the notes have a bit more spacing inbetween and kinda hit you faster. I would say that AHB2 is different than most other amplifiers rather than the Tyrs being more different. The Tyrs might sound a bit less linear and have a bit more weight and sound less analytical. The Tyr might have a bit more weight in the mids and certainly sound different in the highs. However, they both have similar levels of detail, or at least I should say I don't feel like im missing anything with the Tyrs - not like I felt like when I was testing lesser amps anyhow. So the difference in detail certainly isn't night and day. My main audio listening is essentially an SR1a with a Jot R amp. This setup is basically the definition of sharp and lean and I dont think any other headphone on the market would match that. I feel like AHB2 exemplifies those qualities, so it's not like i don't appreciate that type of sound at all. I would say both achieve similar levels of great audio quality and if you went with either one of them you still come out a winner. The human brain has an amazing ability to adapt to almost anything, and despite these amps sounding different, I could live with either one and I'm sure you could as well. Most people would have no qualms about being force to live with one over the other. After a couple of listening sessions you could be forgiven for thinking that the flavor they exude is what music should sound like. Neither do anything wrong, but they do offer slightly different flavors. Please keep in mind that the linearity and leanness and analytical side, along with every other quality befit of the AHB2, must very well still be considered a specific flavor of audio. No matter what purist audiophiles think of it as being reference level audio, it still exemplifies qualities different than most other amps on the market. Either way, after having spent several months with the AHB2 I think it might be time for me to try something different and keep the Tyrs around. I'll keep both for a while and report back if I change my mind in the future. I live in Canada and had trouble justifying the Tyrs with the hefty shipping (over 250$ USD) cost and duties (this was over 500$ CAD for me). I only purchased them during the black Friday sale for a reason. I know schiit was originally against sales, but people on the fence with these things just wouldn't have purchased them without that happening. I can post more comments after many more hours of breaking in, but in my experience with hardware is that it doesn't change a significant amount after several days - at least not nearly as much as your brain adapts to the changes.