Schiit Tyr mono amplifier

[threni]

There is an large group of audio enthusiasts who worship at the Schiit Altar. They will post multitudes in various fora about the newest upcoming product they release. Someone on the Schitt thread "Schiit Two Channel Clubhouse" has already placed an order.

And let's not get started on Topping fan boys!

All that counts is: is it performant?

 

[threni]

Is there a dislike button?

Jokes aside, I have no idea who is supposed to be buying this product.

People are going to come across this when they're searching for those $10,000 USB cables...

 

[Bob from Florida]

Is there a dislike button?

Jokes aside, I have no idea who is supposed to be buying this product.

$3200 a pair is relatively inexpensive when compared to other "high end" equipment. The last pair of tube mono-blocks I had were $4500 a pair, were 80 watts, and were considered a bargain - Quicksilver Silver 88's. Everyone has their own reasons for buying choices - all good. Unless these mono-blocks fail to work as advertised they will sell a lot - if parts are available. Curious to see how they do under test and driving speakers.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Is there a dislike button?

Jokes aside, I have no idea who is supposed to be buying this product.

I want to, but it's a little hot in Florida. I have a difficult to drive well pair of s400 speakers but they cost the same as one of these so maybe not. If a hurricane comes through, i'll have it on my list for the insurance company to replace my old stuff.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

won't there be magnetic coupling issues between the transformers? Surely this will harm the precious soundstage stuff or whatever.
Edit: one is a choke not a transformer. However it should still be in a different orientation to the transformer.

You forget the need to add distortion is always present.

 

[Gorgonzola]

From the Schiit site ( sorry for the alliteration) ...

Class A or AB?
Neither. Continuity™.

What is this Continuity™ thing, really?
Continuity is our way of compensating for transconductance droop when the amplifier transitions out of Class A operation and into Class AB, and to help solve the mismatch between NPN and PNP output devices.

Huh? I didn’t understand all of that.
Okay, let’s break it down like this. Continuity allows us to run less bias than Class A, and yet still have the amp act more like Class A even once it’s outside the Class A operating region.

So this is like Aegir and Jotunheim 2?
Kinda in-between, but closer to Aegir. The implementation of Continuity on Tyr is unique, using a single output “corrector” with a more efficient “sense” device so that Tyr doesn’t have to run as hot as Aegir, but it’s not the “supercharger” arrangement used in Jotunheim 2. This gives us both higher efficiency and higher linearity, which we think is a pretty neat trick.

Okay, so it’s a sliding bias scheme.
Nope, it is a unique output stage that uses both NPN and PNP devices on both rails, and selectively turns on additional devices to compensate for transconductance droop outside of the Class A bias region.

Ok, whatever. But I kinda wish we could leave class A/AB (or whatever the eff) in the rearview mirror. Same for linear power supplies.

If I was prepared to drop heavy bread on a pair of monoblocks I much prefer to drop it on a pair of Atma-Sphere GaNFET-based class D amps. (Granted not quite as powerful and more expensive.) See also ... earlier post by @Martin

 

[FrantzM]

Pricing is good enough to have some people look for them. Audiophiles have been fed for years with the notions of "intrinsic" superiority of class AB. They'll flock to it because it is/will be good "for the price". I tend to think that Soncoz or Topping can/will come out with better and less expensive amplifiers, these will however have that cold, clinical "verging on the "mechanical", ss sound... ....:

Peace.

 

[Tom Ace]

Not for me. I don't want an amp that is only marginally well-enough cooled without a fan. From the Tyr owner's manual:
"Also, if you like your house warm--as in, over 80 degrees F, don’t be surprised if Tyr may need some additional fan cooling."

 

[acetogen]

The website just posted the APx555 measurements. The SINAD ones look better than those for the Vidar and Aegir but nowhere near a high-end class-D. At 4-ohm the dBV is as low as -85 dB

 

[rwortman]

But I kinda wish we could leave class A/AB (or whatever the eff) in the rearview mirror. Same for linear power supplies.

It’s a class A/B amp with some trademarked crossover distortion correction. Negative feedback works fine for reducing distortion so this is more of Schiit trying to show how clever they are. It will probably be a long time before “Lego” amplifiers put together with off the shelf SMPS’s and class D amp modules take over the market. Class D is a wonderful thing for car audio, portable audio, and touring pro audio because of light weight and power efficiency. Those attributes don’t mean much for a home system. If I run my 200wpc class A/B amp at half power (deafening) for 10 hours the electrical power costs 32 cents. If I did that every day (and I surely don’t), it would cost me less than $10 per month. My real power cost is probably closer to $2 per month. This is not so much I need to worry about amp efficiency. As far as weight, it only matters twice, once when I put it in place and once when I sell it. Spec’s? Yeah the new class D modules put up pretty numbers when they are heating resistors on a lab bench. I doubt there is any advantage driving a real speaker and I don’t think all that switching frequency hash is a positive thing. It may not cause any audible problems but it surely isn’t better than not having it.

 

[Ilkless]

I would just go ATI for US-made overbuilt Class AB - no fuss, no woo.

 

[Bobo77]

I have to laugh. No one on the thread has measured or heard these amps.
Yet…."experts" still weigh-in.

 

[Vini darko]

A video tour of schiits manufacturing for the tyr. I enjoyed it , a good bit of marketing.

 

[Gorgonzola]

The Tyr has a 600VA "choke" and has "choke input": what does that mean and what's it's purpose?

 

[_thelaughingman]

I have to laugh. No one on the thread has measured or heard these amps.
Yet…."experts" still weigh-in.

Yea, all these armchair pundits will tout it before it's even measured

 

[mdsimon2]

Yea, all these armchair pundits will tout it before it's even measured

You do know Schiit posted an AP test report?

https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/Schiit%20Amp%20APx555%20Standard%20Test%20Suite_%20Tyr.pdf

Not as comprehensive as the ASR tests but tells us some interesting things.

Noise performance is pretty decent, picking off the THD+N graphs I get about 70 uV residual noise, unweighted, 20-20K. This is 5 W in to 4 ohm SNR of 96 dB which is just fine in my book.

As mentioned previously it has an early rise in distortion above 0.8 V output. If/when this gets reviewed by ASR people will trash it because the 5 W in to 4 ohm (4.47 V output) SINAD looks to be just above 80 dB. As the noise performance is decent this does not bother me.

It hits the rated 200 W in to 8 ohm and 350 W in to 4 ohm at just about 0.1% THD+N which works for me.

Would have liked to have seen some IMD testing or wide bandwidth power sweeps with 20 Hz to 20 kHz inputs but as it is class AB I imagine these look pretty good.

Definitely not the greatest value for money but it seems to do what it is advertised to do and I imagine those that do buy it will be happy.

Michael

 

[_thelaughingman]

Decent specs for sure. 0.1% THD+N definitely is respectable performance at the rate impedence

 

[dfuller]

The Tyr has a 600VA "choke" and has "choke input": what does that mean and what's it's purpose?

Choke is another name for inductor. They're like half a transformer, essentially - they store charge in a magnetic field and also are more effective than a resistor in a filter bank (CLC vs CRC). They behave as low pass filters in series.

Choke input refers to the input of the power supply after the rectifier - so instead of the first filtering component being a capacitor in parallel it's an inductor in series. This in theory gives lower noise and greater stability than a capacitor input, at the cost of reduced voltage output and lower power factor.

 

[rwortman]

You do know Schiit posted an AP test report?

https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/Schiit%20Amp%20APx555%20Standard%20Test%20Suite_%20Tyr.pdf

Not as comprehensive as the ASR tests but tells us some interesting things.

Noise performance is pretty decent, picking off the THD+N graphs I get about 70 uV residual noise, unweighted, 20-20K. This is 5 W in to 4 ohm SNR of 96 dB which is just fine in my book.

As mentioned previously it has an early rise in distortion above 0.8 V output. If/when this gets reviewed by ASR people will trash it because the 5 W in to 4 ohm (4.47 V output) SINAD looks to be just above 80 dB. As the noise performance is decent this does not bother me.

It hits the rated 200 W in to 8 ohm and 350 W in to 4 ohm at just about 0.1% THD+N which works for me.

Would have liked to have seen some IMD testing or wide bandwidth power sweeps with 20 Hz to 20 kHz inputs but as it is class AB I imagine these look pretty good.

Definitely not the greatest value for money but it seems to do what it is advertised to do and I imagine those that do buy it will be happy.

Michael

I agree. It probably sounds fine. My Rotel 1582 MkII does the same or better with two channels instead of one for only a bit more but there has always been a market for mono amps and if you want a mono A/B amp there is nothing wrong with this one.

 

[Gorgonzola]

Choke is another name for inductor. They're like half a transformer, essentially - they store charge in a magnetic field and also are more effective than a resistor in a filter bank (CLC vs CRC). They behave as low pass filters in series.

Choke input refers to the input of the power supply after the rectifier - so instead of the first filtering component being a capacitor in parallel it's an inductor in series. This in theory gives lower noise and greater stability than a capacitor input, at the cost of reduced voltage output and lower power factor.

Thanks, that's very informative. I'm no technical savant and I'll admit I'd never heard of a choke input before this.

But I'm inclined to wonder whether its use isn't adding a lost of cost and weight for minimal improvement.