Will an Amp change improve my system ?

Bryston 14b3 or Bryston 4b3 amp.  Use a great tube preamp with the Bryston and you would be surprised at how good it will sound. The crucial choice is the preamp because the Bryson's are pure, neutral power...solid and dependable. In other words, the preamp you chose will determine the quality of your audio output while the Bryston simply delivers it to your speaker choice.

Put the best power cord you can afford on your main source, then everything else before doing your interconnects. Check out Shunyata Power Cables. You might also want to upgrade your wall sockets and power strips to something higher quality like an Isoclean. Or get the new Shunyata Power Distributors

@carl292 I have been looking at the Schitt Wotan mentioned above and have been discussing the amp with owners over at Head-if. They are a lot of Schitt fans there, so I take that bias into consideration. From what was said I am going to order the Wotan amp and compare it with the CODA #16 I have. If the 2 amps are in the same sonic ballpark, I am going to sell the #16 to get a headphone and keep the Wotan.

The Wotan uses fans but that is not a concern for me these days after my good experience with the KRELL DUO 175XD which also used fans. Though I do not know it ever turned on.

@yyzsantabarbara I'm also interested in the Wotan and the mono Tyrs which are on sale last call.

@carl292 I am going to being doing something crazy. I carried the 110lb CODA #16 amp into my small office from my Livingroom. The office has a Magnepan Mini system. The Mini sounds better than the Magnepan LRS+ but it is meant for a small room or desktop system. I normally have the Sanders Magtech on it, but I wanted to try the #16 on it and also the Sanders on my Yamaha NS5000 in the Livingroom.

To say how blown away by the #16 and Mini is an understatement. I am going to keep this pairing for a while since I spend most of my life in the office. I want to try the Wotan or Tyr on this system later.

Unfortunately, I do not like the Sanders and the NS5000. I am going to sell the Sanders. I have been talking with Schiit fans and trying to decide on whether to get the Tyr or the Wotan. Here are 2 links from Jason Stoddard that you will find helpful.

2022, Chapter 6 30 Years In Development

2024 Chapter 13 Bring Back Big

Wotan vs The Rest

“Spill it, bro,” someone says. “All I need to know is should I go Wotan or Vidar or Tyr or whatever. Which one sounds the best?”

Weeeeeeeellll, you know we really don’t get into that so much, but here’s what I can say: if you want something that is big and brutal and dynamic and fully the match of pretty much any speaker, you can’t go wrong with Wotan. It has more power than ever a pair of Tyrs. It has fans to get it through crazy loads. It has feedback switching for more compatibility with different systems, and more gain when feedback is off. It even has remote control switching of balanced and XLR inputs via Forkbeard.

But of course there’s Vidar 2F. Which is a heckuva powerful amp at a very low price, and it has the fun Forkbeard stuff now.

And Tyr, if you want the ultimate crazy mono amp with choke-input power supply. At a very good price now, as we work on finalizing the Forkbeard version.

Bottom line, there’s not really a bad choice.

But if you want one amp…one amp that can drive pretty much any pair of speakers you want to throw at it…then there’s one super-safe, super-smart choice: Wotan.

I hope you enjoy!

Jason did say that he thought the Tyr was a bit more polite than the Wotan meaning he preferred the Wotan. Most of the Schitt fans I polled like the Tyr, but they never heard the Wotan and already spent their money on the Tyr.

I do think the current Tyr will be upgradeable to the new Tyr amp upgrades.

This is what someone wrote me about the Wotan.

in my opinion, Wotan is overall Warm with plenty of detail. No odd crunchy highs. I have had the MLs with a single Aegir 1 initially, then added another so monoblocked. The Wotan sounds a lot like an uber Aegir to me. I never liked the Vidars, Aegir added that beautiful warmth that i love.

And as far as graininess goes, i can’t hear any, but obviously, ymmv.