Who has Luv for the Lyngdorf 2170 and is thinking about the 3400.

I went and demoed the Lyngdorf 2170 with Paradigm Persona 5F speakers. They are not that hard to drive. I was not impressed by the amplification on the Lyngdorf. When I switched to Lyngdorf pre-amp output to a Simaudio 860A amp the sound was incredible. Now I am a little puzzled by this given the raves that people on here are stating about the Lyngdorf. I did not have ROOM Perfect enabled since the room was rather nice to work with.

My question here is, does the amplification stage of the Lyngdorf need a lot of hours to sound good? This was a demo unit at a dealer. I forgot to ask how many hours it had on it. Though the preamp section sounded incredible. The unit was not plugged in when I came into the store and I got the impression it had not been played for a while.

I am considering doing a comparison of the Lyngdorf with the Linn SELEKT DSM with DSP enabled. You can ditch the amplification module on the Linn, and use an external amp, but you cannot remove the amp on the Lyngdorf. However, given my research on the various flavors of DSP and my demo of the Lyngdorf I am inclined to buy the Lyngdorf and a separate power amp. More costly to me but I need a DSP preamp and the Lyngdorf seems like it has a good combination of ease of use and quality (except maybe the amp).

Anybody using a separate amp with the Lyngdorf? Are you also hearing improved sound with the separate amp? Or did I just experience a demo of an 2170 amplification stage needed more running in?

Rereading this long thread I saw the following quote.

Lyngdorf will need the following to sound its best;

- let it burn in for at least 200 hours before any decision making critical listening
- needs a good power cord and conditioner
- leave it fully on. It sounds much better after being on 12 hours. Leave it on, not in standby.

I probably posted this at least a dozen times on this thread and others but yes I have tried many other solid-state and tube amps with the 2170.

The 2170 always sounded better by itself. Yes you should’ve run room correction and that is my quote above suggesting that the unit should be left on for best sound.

It is impossible for me or even you to know how that amp really sounds based on one visit to a store.Everything matters when it comes to getting the best sound out of this unit. The cabling being used is important and room correction is certainly an aspect that should have been turned on to at least listen to.

Anyway, in the end you will have to listen to it in your own space and determine if you want an additional amp. The unit is not made to use an additional amp to sound it’s best. The possible exception would be using the digital out in which you could use the 2400 amp.In fact the analog outputs and additional interconnect and connectors nullify one of the greatest aspects of this unit which is the short signal paths and built in synergy.

What grannyring said I totally agree with. And I will emphasize the need to evaluate equipment in your listening environment. You have zero idea what's going on with the set-up at that dealer. He apparently has a demo 2170. Take it home and listen to it. 

@grannyring  You state that the Lyngdorf is not meant to be used with a separate amp. The only reason this could be is if the signal from the preamp to the amp is further adjusted via ROOM PERFECT. I did not use RP in my demo so maybe I missed that part. One thing we did do was turn of the sub-woofer output on the 2170. When it was on the Simaudio sounded awful (as expected).

The observation of the dealer and myself with the SimAudio amp in the chain was that the sound was really good. He said that it was the best he had heard the Paradigm Person 5F.  They usually use MAC equipment with the Persona.

When you consider the MAC DSP unit licensed from Lyngdorf I picture it doing the DSP and then outputting a DSPed analog signal to an external amp.

https://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/specialty-products/MEN220

I think I need to email Lyngdorf and ask them on this separate amp issue I am bringing up.