Audiophilepure

The amount of bass is a bit bigger than in a fully neutral amp. Bass has a great kick and punch, and the delivery is with good impact. Bass control is good, and bass reaches down low to sub levels with an excellent rumble down low. I don’t find the bass to be overly present, but it can’t be ignored either, luckily the quality is good.

The mids, as said, are spacious and airy and the vocals here are slightly more focused and too the front, but not too much. Mids perfectly connect to the bass section for what body is concerned. The mid presentation has that lovely tube smoothness but not too much. It makes the mid timbre really addictive and special.

I found the Uniti Atom to be a little warm on the bottom end, while the mids and high were clear and sharp which should appeal to those looking for that live club sound and lovers of contemporary music. The soundstage was very recording dependant, yet large and full, and the Uniti Atom scaled up considerably with higher resolution music, working best with DSD.

As a fully integrated music server, the Uniti Atom is a wonderful value for the money, and the inclusion of a robust and dynamic headphone amp is just a bonus. Highly recommended.

I’ll be interested to get my hands on a Lyr+ and see what it does in the event of tube failure as I have not seen a full description of the tube sensing mechanism (how the Lyr+ determines that a tube is present).

The 6SN7 is a fairly common tube but good ones are becoming harder to find, and the prices are certainly climbing. The $599 USD price will turn out to be a good value once tube prices become sane again and users can use the Schiit Lyr+ as a line stage with active loudspeakers or a power amplifier.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/ferrum-erco-dacheadphone-preamp

The high-end DAC/headphone amp sector isn’t exactly a barren landscape, but Ferrum’s ERCO sits at the top of the hill. Its sound is as finely detailed as it’s weighty and dynamic, typically driving headphones to stunning effect whether with gritty blues or whirling orchestral strings. There’s focus, finesse and control here when required, but it’s just as adept at slamming out rock with a ferrum-clad fist!

Stoddard also explained he didn’t expect Folkvangr to be a big seller in any case, since it’s a very hot-running, impractical amplifier that doesn’t put out an especially large amount of power.

For those who are interested in Schiit’s all-out tube headphone amp, Folkvangr uses a total of 10 tubes–two matched 6N1Ps for input and voltage gain, and eight 6N6Ps for output. Eight separate DC servos keep the output tubes at a low level of offset, and an analog-computer-style protection system monitors and mutes the output in case of any tube mishaps.

At idle, the 10 tubes run 7.2A of heater current and 100mA of standing bias.

In addition to the tubes, Folkvangr offers a switchable impedance multiplier—an electronic circuit that operates similar to a transformer. Stoddard emphasizes this is “not a buffer, it’s output is in parallel with the tube stage, and has the same distortion profile.