Schiit Asgard

[Yikes]

it's a pity that I need another amp like I need a hole in the head..... Must relieve the pressure.

I also like their attitude, and the prices seem more than fair. Must resist.

[rayk]

Hi Jason, very interesting looking amp, hope you do well because I'd love to try a unit when I have some funds to blow haha.

One thing that I always don't like is no voltage selector on amps. Any plans to make it come with one?

[mrarroyo]

I too like their attitude, price, and looks of the amp. I wish they had used tubes that have NOS equivalent, funny because I have a few 6N1P and 6N6P somewhere.

[wgb113]

Of course, there will be a time to update the designs in the future, and (hopefully) to introduce new products. We're still trying to decide what to do next . . .

What to do next?

Asgard: $250

Valhalla: $350

Matching DAC: $300

A sweet setup in either flavor for $550-$650.

Bill

[skullguise]

I bit, ordered one Friday, they already sent it on its way....should get it maybe Tuesday. Looking forward to trying with the Thunderpants.

[skullguise]

Got mine, haven't had a big chance to listen, hope to tonight. Build quality looks mighty nice. Does get very warm, but as the manual says, it's expected (BTW, manual continues the great humor of the web site).

Clarity and Dynamics definitely there, they stood out pretty quickly; need to do more listening for tone and overall joy factor.

Don't have a wide choice of dynamics, down to just a Shure 840 and Thunderpants (I should add a pic to the new thread tonight ) for full-size, and UE Triple-Fi and Shure E210 for IEM's. Oh, and a Senn 414.....haven't tried that though.

[Beefy]

Cool, looking forward to some non-Head-Fi opinions

[agile_one]

Way to go, Todd.

Looking forward to your further impressions, and certainly glad that firsts are good. Nice to hear that build is good,and that manual continues the lighthearted vibe. My Valhalla scheduled for Aug 15.

[Salt Peanuts]

Todd, when you get a chance, can you try it out with your Shure? I'm somewhat tempted to get one to use at home with JH13's, but I'm wondering how much volume (knob) range it has with sensitive IEMs.

[wgb113]

After chatting with Jason I'm going to preorder the Valhalla as well. My first experience with tubes!

Bill

[Asr]

I ordered one earlier today and it shipped already, dang these guys are fast. I wonder how many of these amps they have in-stock right now. Might be picking up a Valhalla at some point too - $350 is just too good to pass up for an American-made tube amp.

I might be doing a loaner program type thing with the Asgard later, could definitely swing it into Canada for at least one person.

[skullguise]

Few more thoughts after some listening tonight. I put the Asgard in my secondary system, which is Sony NS-900V player driving Parasound 1600HD DAC. Feeds Stax SRM-T1W/Lambda Sig's via balanced, and now the Asgard via RCA. Used the Shure 840's; Haj, the volume control never got past 11:00, and it was plenty loud. Didn't seem to have balance issues at lower levels, nor any noise at all. Should drive IEM's pretty well, I'd bet.

The clarity and dynamics I mentioned earlier were still evident, but I'm hearing the dynamics being more midrange driven. Even after some slight warm-up, there was a slight peakiness in the mids; noticable on female vox and piano. I had some Alison Kraus, Loreena McKennitt, and Cara Dillon CD's playing, and they showed some mid glare through the Shures. By contrast, the Stax system had more neutral mids; I could still hear the nasal sound of Alison Kraus' vocals, but it wasn't as glaring. If anything, it may have been a little recessed (for my taste; I can't say what was most realistic for the recording, but both systems sounded good. The Asgard/Shuire was more in your face with some glare, the Stax more distant). Alison's fiddle also had a slight more resonant tone with the Stax, but had some good clarity and richness through the Asgard/Shure as well.

Bass was also not super deep, but seemed pretty tight for what it had. I think it may also need more warmup (was on for about 45 minutes to an hour befiore I started doing my real listening). Some tracks on Loreena's CD have some deep acoustic and synthesized bass. Came out with the Asgard/Shure combo, but was noticably stronger with the Stax. This may also be symptomatic of the Shures; never remember getting deep deep bass from them....

Highs are detailed yet pretty warm. The Stax system can be etchy in the wrong system; they mate very well with the slight warmth of the Parasound. The Asgard/Shure combo never seemed at a loss for detail, but did seem softer at the higher highs.

Soundstage was limtied with the Asgard/Shure system, another attribute more driven by the Shures I'd say. Stax was very good, as I expected.

Not much more to say right now. So far, though, I'd rate the Asgard VERY highly for such a cheap price. Even with the cheap but fun Shures, it's making some nice music, and aside from the slight glare when the volume was higher, kept me hooked. I estimate that after 457.3 more hours of burn-in, should be the new FOTM

EDIT: Haj, you're welcome to borrow, we can arrange at my work sometime soon since you're right there. And Gene, given this experience, I think you'll like the tubes a lot....

[The Monkey]

How hot is it after being on for a while?

[skullguise]

How hot is it after being on for a while?

Can be touched, but not held long without discomfort. Interestingly, the bottom plate gets hot pretty fast. And since no ventilation, it needs to be on footers. Schiit supplies some cheap rubber ones, but I used those clone-of-Mapleshade rubber/cork squares.....didn't tell any difference sound-wise, but felt better that heat was escaping the bottom.

[The Monkey]

Thanks. An email response from Jason said the same thing about the heat distribution. According to him, the Valhalla runs hot too, but the top gets hotter than the bottom.

[skullguise]

give me a raise wizard!

Working on it.....Gulf comes first.......

Oh, and MY raise ,too

[Bidoux]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3251[/ATTACH]

I'm sure I'm wrong, but such a design would be inverting, wouldn't it ?

[Currawong]

Few more thoughts after some listening tonight. I put the Asgard in my secondary system, which is Sony NS-900V player driving Parasound 1600HD DAC. Feeds Stax SRM-T1W/Lambda Sig's via balanced, and now the Asgard via RCA. Used the Shure 840's; Haj, the volume control never got past 11:00, and it was plenty loud. Didn't seem to have balance issues at lower levels, nor any noise at all. Should drive IEM's pretty well, I'd bet.

The clarity and dynamics I mentioned earlier were still evident, but I'm hearing the dynamics being more midrange driven. Even after some slight warm-up, there was a slight peakiness in the mids; noticable on female vox and piano. I had some Alison Kraus, Loreena McKennitt, and Cara Dillon CD's playing, and they showed some mid glare through the Shures. By contrast, the Stax system had more neutral mids; I could still hear the nasal sound of Alison Kraus' vocals, but it wasn't as glaring. If anything, it may have been a little recessed (for my taste; I can't say what was most realistic for the recording, but both systems sounded good. The Asgard/Shuire was more in your face with some glare, the Stax more distant). Alison's fiddle also had a slight more resonant tone with the Stax, but had some good clarity and richness through the Asgard/Shure as well.

Bass was also not super deep, but seemed pretty tight for what it had. I think it may also need more warmup (was on for about 45 minutes to an hour befiore I started doing my real listening). Some tracks on Loreena's CD have some deep acoustic and synthesized bass. Came out with the Asgard/Shure combo, but was noticably stronger with the Stax. This may also be symptomatic of the Shures; never remember getting deep deep bass from them....

Highs are detailed yet pretty warm. The Stax system can be etchy in the wrong system; they mate very well with the slight warmth of the Parasound. The Asgard/Shure combo never seemed at a loss for detail, but did seem softer at the higher highs.

Soundstage was limtied with the Asgard/Shure system, another attribute more driven by the Shures I'd say. Stax was very good, as I expected.

Not much more to say right now. So far, though, I'd rate the Asgard VERY highly for such a cheap price. Even with the cheap but fun Shures, it's making some nice music, and aside from the slight glare when the volume was higher, kept me hooked. I estimate that after 457.3 more hours of burn-in, should be the new FOTM

EDIT: Haj, you're welcome to borrow, we can arrange at my work sometime soon since you're right there. And Gene, given this experience, I think you'll like the tubes a lot....

To me, forward mids and collapsed soundstage, especially with demanding music, are the typical characteristics of the cheap amps I've owned or tried. I can see people being happy to have a US made alternative to the Little Dot amps though.

[Shahrose]

To me, forward mids and collapsed soundstage, especially with demanding music, are the typical characteristics of the cheap amps I've owned or tried. I can see people being happy to have a US made alternative to the Little Dot amps though.

I was thinking the same thing when reading those impressions.

[dsavitsk]

I'm sure I'm wrong, but such a design would be inverting, wouldn't it ?

Taking the signal from the drain of the other jfet would be inverting. This is basically a long tailed pair phase splitter with the inverted output ignored -- which is what the Melos is, too.

[Bidoux]

I was wrong, as expected.

[skullguise]

Just a quick update, did a tiny bit more listening last night, and have some more thoughts:

- Soundstage issues are likely more with the Shure than the amp. I tried the Thunderpants on the Asgard. There is something going on with my TP's, they are a little underdamped methinks....but bottom line, they got more spacious than the Shures.

- I tried the Shures on my Colin-built Millett Max, and the soundstage was only a little bit bigger

- The midrange glare is not there with the Millett, though; so unless it goes away with more burn-in, that may be indicative of the Asgard

Still like this unit quite a bit at its price, the fun factor is certainly there....but I think it is what it is, a very nice $250 amp. Time will tell more......

[Smeggy]

A nice $250 amp is all I'm looking for and expecting. I'm not sure why some are getting so overly 'passionate' over there, it seems many have wild expectations way above it's price band. I just hope it's a good little amp.

[Nebby]

I think part of it is the standard FOTM effect

[spritzer]

People claiming it is ground braking is so idiotic it isn't even funny. The hype train is even fueled by the same idiots as are pushing the LCD-2. Just gotta love HF...