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Asgard vs o2 vs Mjolnir

post #1 of 11
10/1/12 at 10:43pm
Thread Starter 

Hi guys,

 

I'm looking at getting either the LCD2, PS1000 or HD800. In the long term i might even end up owning an LCD2 plus one of the last two, but that's still a distant dream. haha

 

I know the Mjolnir is a lot more expensive compared with the other two amps (Asgard and O2). But was wondering which would everyone recommend if I was to own maybe two of the above headphones in the future. In particular the PS1000 as it has lower ohms so I'm worried an improper match in amp/power might harm the headphones? 

 

I also noticed the asgard and mjolnir doesn't have selectable gain so was wondering if that would be an issue with say lower impedenace phones like the PS1000 at 32 ohms and my other lower impedance phones.

 

Listened to the O2 extensively today mostly on low gain for all 3 headphones. It sounded good, but I noticed when I switched to high gain that there was some minor distortion and crackling when I was using the LCD2 and PS1000 and things sounded clumped and messy on high gain as well for those two phones. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

Thanks

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post #2 of 11
10/2/12 at 4:41am

Reports seem to indicate that the Mjolnir is an excellent match with the LCD's but maybe to aggressive/bright with the HD800's for some people. A lot of people prefer tube amps with the HD800's to fill the sound out and maybe warm it up a little.

 

Have not heard any reports of the PS1000 with the Mjolnir.

 

I have tried low impedance phones (around 28 ohms) with my Master-6 which is more powerful than the Mjolnir and have detected no problems. Schiit states 8-600 ohms on their website so should not be any problems, just be careful with the volume control.

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post #3 of 11
10/2/12 at 5:14am
Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric23 View Post

 

Listened to the O2 extensively today mostly on low gain for all 3 headphones. It sounded good, but I noticed when I switched to high gain that there was some minor distortion and crackling when I was using the LCD2 and PS1000 and things sounded clumped and messy on high gain as well for those two phones. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

The high gain mode on the O2 should only be used if low gain is not loud enough. Since the gain stage is before the volume control, unnecessarily increasing the gain can (and, with a standard 2.0 Vrms Red Book level source and the default 6.5x high gain, definitely will) result in clipping, regardless of how low you set the volume. The high gain setting is mainly for portable sources that can only output less than 1 Volt RMS level.


Edited by stv014 - 10/2/12 at 5:16am
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post #4 of 11
10/2/12 at 11:50am
Thread Starter 

Hi guys,

 

Thanks so much for both of your advice. I was thinking of using the Dragonfly as my dac and either getting the o2 or the asgard for the amp. Might be running either the lcd2, ps1000 or hd800 on them. When auditioning these setups.. i noticed that on high gain there was indeed static/crackling noises and maybe clipping. Things just sounded very unnaturally congested. This mainly was with the LCD2 and PS1000 on o2's high gain. The HD800 not so much on certain tracks. Never had an issue with volume in low gain for the lcd2 and ps1000. I had more than enough loudness with the volume dial at about 11 o'clock. With the HD800 and on low gain I had to go a bit past 12 o'clock closer to 2. 

 

Was wondering has anyone compared the o2 to the asgard? Is the asgard much more powerful and better sounding? I won't mind paying another 100 bucks more for it if it's clearly better than the o2. But I was also worried because some ppl were saying the Asgard before had this overvoltage thing that might ruin or harm headphones sometimes? Was just a bit paranoid to plug in such expensive headphones into the asgard if there is such a problem. haha..

 

Was thinking of actually even getting the Mjolnir, but then I'm a bit too lazy to have to switch the headphones to balanced cables instead. =(

 

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

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post #5 of 11
10/3/12 at 9:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric23 View Post


Was wondering has anyone compared the o2 to the asgard? Is the asgard much more powerful and better sounding?

 

+1

 

Would like to know this too if possible. Is Asgard in a different class than O2?

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post #6 of 11
10/6/12 at 9:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AbsoluteZero View Post

 

+1

 

Would like to know this too if possible. Is Asgard in a different class than O2?

 

One thing I do appreciate with my O2 is that it is always cool to the touch - having an Asgard on your bedside table would be the equivalent of sleeping with a toaster oven. eek.gif

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post #7 of 11
10/6/12 at 10:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nigeljames View Post

Reports seem to indicate that the Mjolnir is an excellent match with the LCD's but maybe to aggressive/bright with the HD800's for some people. A lot of people prefer tube amps with the HD800's to fill the sound out and maybe warm it up a little.

[...]

The Mjolnir is not inherently bright or abrassive. If your preferences don't discriminate against the HD800's signature and the source is up to scratch, you will not find the Mjolnir detrimental.
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post #8 of 11
10/7/12 at 10:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by estreeter View Post

 

One thing I do appreciate with my O2 is that it is always cool to the touch - having an Asgard on your bedside table would be the equivalent of sleeping with a toaster oven. eek.gif


Heard the rumor quite a lot, the same with other Schiit products (Lyr, Valhalla). Interestingly I was able to audition the Asgard a couple of days ago and after 30 minutes of usage, it does get quite warm-to-hot level but not that hot IMO. The side that becomes hot is usually in the vent, the cover does not get hot.

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post #9 of 11
10/8/12 at 12:04am

The Asgard does get warm to the touch, however it is not going to heat your room up !

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post #10 of 11
10/10/12 at 4:39pm
I had an Asgard, and sold it once I built and listened to my first O2.
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post #11 of 11
10/10/12 at 8:10pm

The O2 is a weird creation - I find myself talking down a lot of the hype in various threads, then  I spend a few hours listening to my music via the ungainly little beast and I can see where some of the adulation comes from. Would definitely like to see a combined ODAC/O2 in a nice case - that's counter to what the designer was trying to achieve, but it would be interesting to hear listening impressions from those who didnt know what it was. We all carried our own biases from the moment we plugged our phones into an O2,. 

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