March 18, 2026, San Antonio, TX. Today, Schiit Audio announced the immediate availability of Lyr 5, its first Forkbeard-enabled headphone amp. Lyr 5 brings Continuous Class A Monitoring to Forkbeard, allowing owners to better understand the performance of their system. Together with Forkbeard's integration with other Schiit products, a Lyr 5 stack provides additional advanced features such as Visual Volume. Lyr 5 provides both tube and solid state gain, 6W of output power through both 1/4" and 4.4mm jacks, Schiit's exclusive Continuity A output stage, and relay ladder volume. Lyr 5 is available now from $799 at Schiit.com.

"Lyr 5 is the most advanced product we've done in this desktop size," said Jason Stoddard, Schiit's co-founder. "Our first headphone amp with Forkbeard lets people see if they are running in Class A, AB, or getting close to the limit--something that no other headphone amp can do. And, it's a retro-technological tour de force, combining mechanical relay switching and tactile knobs and buttons with the latest app-based control."

Lyr 5 provides owners with the choice of running with either tube or solid state gain, in an exclusive topology that Schiit calls Coherence™. When the tube isn't in use, it's completely shut down, with no power to either the heaters or high voltage rails. This preserves life, without having to remove the tube from the amp.

"Tube or solid state mode switching isn't just changing from one topology to another," added Jason. "It switches out, in near real time, the tube gain element with depletion-mode MOSFETs. These are the closest modern device to a tube. So you're listening to the same topology, just either with tube or solid state gain."

Lyr 5 also has advanced protection and convenience features, including current, temperature, and DC oversight, and full microprocessor control, making it a powerful and safe amplifier for anyone's most treasured headphones.

Forkbeard integration means Lyr 5 can be "stacked" with a DAC such as Mimir, or any of Schiit's Forkbeard-enabled DACs, to create a complete, compact system that encompasses D/A conversion and parametric EQ, in addition to Lyr's amplification capability. As an added bonus, Visual Volume is enabled for these systems, which allows the owner to see the ranges on the volume control that may cause the system to clip. This provides an unparalleled level of system insight.

Lyr 5 includes everything an owner needs to get up and running quickly, including a tube and the Forkbeard module. Forkbeard requires a iOS or Android app download.

Lyr 5 is priced at $799 in black finish and $829 in silver.

About Schiit Audio

Since its founding in 2010, Schiit has grown to be the leader in affordable high-end audio, with a broad portfolio of unique analog and digital technologies spanning a wide range of products, from DACs and preamps to power and headphone amps, from $49 to $2799.

Schiit's unique digital technologies include Forkbeard™, the unified control, visualization, and optimization platform; Singular™, Multiform™, True Multibit™, and Mesh™ DACs, using proprietary digital filters based on closed-form math, Unison USB™, a purpose-built UAC2 audio interface based on 32-bit Microchip microprocessors, and Autonomy Architecture™, a modular, upgradable platform to help customers preserve the value of their DAC investment.

Schiit's unique analog architectures include the Nexus™ discrete differential topology, Continuity™ transconductance-equalizing output stages, Coherence™ DC-coupled hybrid topology, Halo™ mixed-mode motion feedback, and a focus on proprietary, low- or no-feedback, fully discrete, highly linear gain and power stages.

Schiit designs and produces its products in the USA.

Press Contact

Denise Martin, [email protected]