Lyre V2 | @insertpi
The RaynAudio Lyre - Looks Incredible, Sounds Even Better
I got the RaynAudio Lyre last week after an impromptu insertion into the loaner tour. Since I'd learned about Rayn's headphones, I'd always wanted to try one. I initially signed up for the Mimic tour, but it was unfortunately canceled due to the Mimic project being canceled. I was determined to try one of Rayn's headphones, so I was able to get myself a Lyre unit.
Upon opening the carrying case, I was blown away by the looks. I'd always thought Rayn's headphones looked stunning, but in-person is just a different experience. I genuinely think these are some of the best looking headphones on the market.
Putting them on my head, the Lyre was a bit heavier than what I am normally comfortable with, and they were a little bit on the clampier side, but my worries that I'd have the same issues I have with Audeze were quickly dismissed. The Audeze LCD-2 I once owned was very heavy on my head, and would slide off at the slightest tilt of my head. They would just not stay put. The Lyre didn't have this issue whatsoever; they were stable and provided ample opportunity to tilt and move my head around without worrying about them sliding off. The extra clampiness is mostly alleviated by very comfortable and cushiony memory foam pads, though I did find them to make my ears quite warm in long listening sessions.
The sound, though, is really what I want to focus on. They are the most neutral sounding headphones I have ever tried. My previous contender for the smoothest headphones (especially in the treble) was the Stax SR-X1. I love my SR-X1, and sitting down with them is truly a euphoric experience, but even those I have to push up the mid treble a little bit with a very wide Q peak filter, since they're slightly dark in the mid treble to my ears. The Lyre doesn't need even a single filter of EQ treble to sound amazing. In a sine sweep, they are perfectly even in volume, aside from a slight rise around 6 kHz, and a dip approaching 9-10 kHz (though every headphone I've ever done a sine sweep with has a dip on my head around 9-10 kHz, so I won't hold this against the Lyre).
With the "objective" sound out of the way (I don't have a measurement rig, so sine sweeps are the best I can do), they sound totally transparent. If it wasn't for the fact that they stage like headphones and I can physically feel the headphones on my head, I could've totally forgotten that I was listening to headphones. Every other headphone I've tried up until this point, to a degree, and some more than others, sounds like I'm listening to music through headphones. The Lyre sounded like I was listening to music. It presents the music exactly how it exists in the recording. Nothing more, nothing less. For a neutral and transparent headphone, I don't know of anything that does the job better, and I've owned an HD 650 for years now. After adding a slight bass shelf in EQ, I found it drastically increased the "fun" factor while still retaining the transparency in the mids and treble.
For intangibles, the timbre was amazing, the best timbre I've ever heard from a headphone without EQ. I think the Stax SR-X1 can be better with EQ than the Lyre without EQ, but I'm sure if I spent 30 seconds fixing the slight elevation at 6 kHz, that would be alleviated. Unfortunately I didn't think to do that before shipping off the unit to the next person in line. They stage like headphones. I'm not the best person to ask about soundstage, since everything more or less stages the same for me. The attack/decay is about standard for a planar; I don't think there's much more I can say about that.
Overall, I am extremely impressed. My only real critiques are with the weight/clamp. I have no criticisms about the sound, unless I want to be extremely nitpicky and say that a bass boost really brings out the fun factor. I will be purchasing a pair of my own as soon as I can. They truly are spectacular.
