LYRIC TI 100 MK.II INTEGRATED

Boy, do I remember single-ended triodes with midranges that could give you goosebumps in half a second, make tears well up in your eyes, and have you searching frantically through your album and/ or CD collection. Yes, bass was often an issue and stratospheric treble scaling was the domain of non-single-ended amps, but what you had was as sweet as cake!

At one time, I had them all—the 845s, EL34s, 300Bs, EL84s, 2A3, 572s, 211s, etc. They were all single-“endedly” employed, all had their very own personalities, and all had their strengths and weaknesses.

I remember very clearly trying to run a monster pair of speakers affixed with two very large woofers, two midrange drivers, and a tweeter, with of all things, an itsy-bitsy-teenieweenie EL84 amplifier and its six, maybe seven watts. The amplifier could literally fit in the palm of your hand, and the speakers were almost as big as me. Friends who happened by to see what I’m sure appeared to be a circus pairing—flea circus meets the strong man— stifled laughter whenever they could, but that, unfortunately, was seldom. And yes, it really didn’t work that well (see: not at all) but it was during a transition, as the amps needed to run the nearly six-foot monster speakers had not yet arrived.

Well, that was then and things, as in every niche of audio, have changed and for the better. This brings me to the LYRIC Audio Ti 100 single-ended integrated amplifier sporting a relatively new triode tube—the KT170— capable of an easy 20 watts into kinda efficient speakers (87-89dB) and quite efficient speakers. There are also the ‘“iron” transformers of the integrated, which bring its weight to about 50 lb. (22.8kg). Yes, you heard that right.

To let the cat peek his cute little head out of the bag, this review will, I believe, be a lot of fun. And did you see how sweet it looks? I’ve just been sitting for quick moments as the LYRIC Ti 100 has been burning in, and for some reason, that Christmas Eve smile of anticipation has been trying to free itself, though I won’t let it, not just now.

LYRIC

LYRIC TI 100 Mk.II Integrated $9,290 www.lyric-audio.de

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