Schiit Lyr+ vs Schiit Valhalla 3

Short answer

More power: the Schiit Lyr+, with 6.00 W into 32 Ω; the Schiit Valhalla 3 has 750 mW. The Schiit Lyr+ drives 1 headphone to 100 dB that the Schiit Valhalla 3 cannot (Symphonium Titan).
Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — the maker of the Schiit Lyr+ publishes no noise figure.
Output impedance: 534 headphones are left alone by the Schiit Lyr+ under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Schiit Valhalla 3 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 531 more).
Price: the Schiit Lyr+ costs $50 less, and wherever both makers publish a figure the Schiit Valhalla 3 shows no advantage for the extra money.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $449 against $499.

The Schiit Lyr+ reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Schiit Valhalla 3 on 566.

Every published figure, next to each other

Specification	Schiit Lyr+	Schiit Valhalla 3
Power into 32Ω	6.0 W	750 mW
Power into 150Ω	1.5 W	286 mW
Power into 300Ω	900 mW	250 mW
Power into 600Ω	450 mW	125 mW
Output impedance	0.4 Ω	25 Ω
Output noise	not published	6.32 µV
Price	$449	$499
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567	567	566

Not published means the maker leaves it out, so that axis cannot be compared.

Where each power figure comes from

Load	Schiit Lyr+	Schiit Valhalla 3
32 Ω	Published	Published
150 Ω	Derived	Derived
300 Ω	Published	Published
600 Ω	Published	Derived

Both makers publish a power rating. Schiit Lyr+ publishes at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω; Schiit Valhalla 3 at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

So the two columns are not equally firm row by row: at 600 Ω only the Schiit Lyr+ figure is the maker’s own. On those rows the derived number is the one to doubt first.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

1 headphone reaches 100 dB on the Schiit Lyr+ but not on the Schiit Valhalla 3 — Symphonium Titan.

534 headphones are left alone by the Schiit Lyr+ under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Schiit Valhalla 3 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 531 more).

566 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the Shure SE846: Schiit Lyr+ has +51 dB of headroom there against +37 dB. 14 dB is about 24 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Schiit Lyr+ because that maker publishes no output noise figure.

Headphone	Impedance	Needs	Schiit Lyr+ headroom	Schiit Valhalla 3 headroom	Schiit Lyr+ hiss	Schiit Valhalla 3 hiss
Shure SE846	9 Ω	0.04 mW	+51 dB	+37 dB damping	not published	30 dB
Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020	9 Ω	4.0 mW	+31 dB	+17 dB damping	not published	10 dB
Audeze LCD-2 Classic	70 Ω	0.79 mW	+36 dB	+27 dB damping	not published	9 dB
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)	250 Ω	0.63 mW	+32 dB	+26 dB	not published	4 dB
HiFiMAN HE400se	25 Ω	7.9 mW	+29 dB	+19 dB damping	not published	3 dB
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X	470 Ω	1.6 mW	+26 dB	+20 dB	not published	-3 dB
Sennheiser HD 600	300 Ω	6.6 mW	+21 dB	+16 dB	not published	-7 dB
HiFiMAN Susvara	60 Ω	50 mW	+18 dB	+10 dB damping	not published	-9 dB

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Schiit Valhalla 3 costs $50 more than the Schiit Lyr+, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the Schiit Valhalla 3 handles and the Schiit Lyr+ does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper Schiit Lyr+ drives one model to 100 dB and leaves 534 alone under the one-eighth rule that the Schiit Valhalla 3 does not.

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.