NEW - Schiit Asgard 2 - Page 10

 

The hum or his ear?!! 

I've only seen one report of a dead silent A2. Does anyone else have one that doesn't hum? I'm not too worried about the present hum, but it could be bothersome if it gets any worse. 

 

I think I'm done being an early adopter in the audio world. Every time I get something upon release there is a problem which is subsequently fixed in later batches. Paying to be a beta tester isn't fun.  I had a feeling that I should have canceled the order the second Jason said they were having problems with the production units not matching the final prototype.

Edited by Radioking59 - 3/1/13 at 10:15pm

Just finished taking apart my Asgard 2.  Found an interesting "mod" on the bottom of the PCB.  It looks like a "scratch" that  apparently cuts three traces on the board.  Appears to be related to the gain switch.

 

 

 

 

Edited by blasjw - 3/1/13 at 11:44pm

I hear a slight hum if I nearly burn my ear off pressing it against the damn thing. Other than that, it's, for all intents and purposes, silent.

Edited by vaed - 3/1/13 at 11:41pm

Deleted

Edited by Radioking59 - 3/2/13 at 12:17am

I really have to disagree.

 

The point you're making is not helpful in this age of $250.00 computers, telephones, and

amplifiers which exhibit no hum (or similar deficiencies) at all.  Less robust - but still more

than adequate - build quality is understandable.  Economies must show themselves

somewhere.  But not in the form of hum which interferes which the enjoyment of one's music.

Edited by zazex - 3/2/13 at 2:22am

This is a tough one...

 

On one hand I feel a little bummed that there is a hum that shouldn't be present.  It's minor, but it is there.  

 

On the other hand, am I that much of a perfectionist that I'm going to let this aural blemish get the better of my listening enjoyment?  The amp sounds F-ing great!  

OK, so it isn't "perfect".  Can't I get past it?

 

I think I can...I think so...I'm pretty sure...

 

Then there's also the possibility that the hum gets quieter with time...

I should clarify.  Hearing a hum at a few feet in unacceptable at any price point.  Placing your ear on the amp and heating a slight hum is ok at the A2's price point.

 

Wow.  This is one is a little surprising.  I'm guessing the scratch is a circuit connection they needed to cut after the board was printed.  But, I'm unsure why.

 

Maybe you could post this in the official A2 announcement thread to see what people there have to say.  We have two active threads about the A2 and they aren't linked.

 

Edited by hodgjy - 3/2/13 at 5:25am

 

I am a little surprised about the wires, also.  There is plenty of room to run traces on the board.  Not saying that there isn't a reason for it, but...

(in a past job I did multi-layer PCB layout, so before you ask: yes, I am familiar with the requirements for proper layout and routing)

Do you have a picture of the top of the board?

 

P.S.  The HD800's should arrive today so I will give my impressions soon with the Asgard 2,  Bifrost should be here next week.

Edited by bearFNF - 3/2/13 at 7:46am

My guess is that's a postproduction mod and one of the reasons for the shipping delay.

I can hear hum in my A2 but only close up, i.e. less than 2 inches. Not audible at my seating position, about arms length. It doesn't bother me.

I continue to be impressed with the sonics.

Does anybody know the topology of the preamp?

I received my A2 a couple of days ago. I've noticed that it picks up a lot of static from my X-Fi sound card source. The static scales with the amp volume level, but *not* with the PC volume level. The sound is very audible during quiet passages of music. I don't hear the same static when using my MF X-Can V3 with the same source. I do not however hear the static if I use say my iphone as a source, so I know its not being generated in the amp, *but* somehow the other amp does not pick it up. I'm sure that a PC-based sound source is not going to be the cleanest, but if my other amp was not having an issue, I'd be less worried about it. Having said that, it almost makes the amp unusable in this setup. Note, I've also tried different audio cables without any benefit. As another side note, if I just touch the 3.5mm jack of the cable (i.e. my finger is the audio source), I get a lot of static coming from the amp. Its much less pronounced when I use the low gain setting (which is not practical for my HD-650s)

 

Rgds

Edited by sti_boy - 3/2/13 at 9:28am

Been listening to my Asgard 2 for the past four days now.  Some initial impressions:

 

• My unit definitely has some mechanical transformer buzz.  When my computer's off, I can hear it from about five feet away.  While I'm not thrilled about it, it really doesn't interrupt my listening experience at all -- I can't hear it when I have any of my headphones on.
• I've tried the Asgard 2 with three different pairs of headphones -- my K702 65th Anniversary, my DT880/600, and my HD598.  These headphones represent a pretty wide range of impedances.  The Asgard 2 sounds very good with the K702 and outstanding with the HD598, but I don't particularly care for it with the DT880/600.  This doesn't really surprise me, as I have always preferred the 600-ohm Beyers with OTL tube amps.  That's why I still have my Valhalla.
• I think the amp is pretty neutral -- doesn't sound like it's emphasizing or lacking any frequency range in particular.
• In high gain mode, there's a pretty high noise floor with my HD598 -- enough to be bothersome.  I can still hear some noise on the K702, but nothing on the DT880.
• In low gain mode, there is practically no noise floor at all -- DEAD silent.  I don't think it results entirely from the fact that it's lower gain -- I think it must be due to the feedback Schiit implemented in the low gain mode.  In any case, I've very much preferred the low gain mode for this reason.
• Other than the noise floor, I can't hear any difference between the low and high gain modes -- but I don't claim to have a golden ear, take with grain of salt, etc.
• Low gain mode offers plenty of headroom for both my K702 and HD598.  There's a moderate amount of headroom for my DT880, but I'd probably switch to high gain mode for that headphone.

 

It's been a while since I've had my Asgard 1, but I'm not sure the Asgard 2 offers that much improvement really.  Both are very good sounding amps.  My Asgard 1 didn't have the transformer buzz, and if I were to rank the noise floor from best to worst, it would be (Asgard 2, low gain) > (Asgard 1) > (Asgard 2, high gain).  Overall, I'm happy with the amp, but I don't find it to be a substantial improvement over the original Asgard.

So, after about eight hours of listening here are my impressions of the Asgard 2 driving my brand new HD800's.

 

First off, I was underwhelmed by the bass when I first started listening.  The headphones literally came off the truck and were hooked up mintues later (the UPS dude gave me a funny look when I came running to get the box ).  They were very cold from shipping, so cold in fact that condensation formed on the metal part of the head band.  The bass was there but not very pronounced.  I decided to let them warm up at least close to room temps before starting the eval.  I had been listening to the HE500's at the time, also so that might have been a factor (warming the amp up for the HD800's ).

 

After about half an hour I tried again.  Much better but still not a lot of bass there.  That's why I decided to give a good long listen.  A mix of Asgard 2 and straight form my computer's modded X-Fi.  Seven hours later (watching hockey on TV(muted), listening to music.  Who needs to hear the commentators anyway, bunch of useless info they spew...well any way back to the tack at hand.

 

The Asgard 2 does a respectable job of driving these phones.  Bare in mind this is the first time I have heard them ever, so I am comparing it to the others phones I have (see the earlier post). 

Comparing them to the HE-500's there is less bass in the HD800's but what is there is crisper and more defined.  The HE-500, um, ?mushes? or muddies maybe? the bass some. Some may want more quantity.  I noticed the recording/song style had a lot to do with it, some songs were just fine, others seemed to be lacking.  The HD800's have MUCH better mids more ?forward? and pronounced.  Very good with vocals (Alison Krauss, Anita Baker).  The highs were also more present, but never got to much.  Especially liked the attack on guitar strings, made their presence felt.  The HD800's felt a lot more balanced in the presentation, showed better separation, and greater detail.  Soundstage was slightly bigger. 

The comfort of the HD800's is on a whole new level, after half an hour I almost forgot I was wearing them.  This is a set of phone sfor the long haul listener as evidenced by the eight hour session I just completed, could not do that with the HE-500's would need breaks periodically.  Also did not have to mod the HD800's as I had to with the He-500's and Grados for comfort.

The volume pot didn't need to be as high with the HD800's, also.  About 10:30 versus almost noon with the HE-500's both on high gain. 

 

So the upshot is that the Asgard 2 does a very good job, IMHO, driving the HD800's and it is very worth trying it out for yourself.  I plan to compare this to a friends Bottlehead crack once he gets it built (or maybe I should do one, too? hhmmmm...poor wallet is gonna have fits).

 

Let me know if there are specific questions.

I received my Asgard 2 and Bifrost a couple of days ago and have just now had time to spend on setting it up.

 

Mine is in perfect condition with no blemishes at all. Indeed the build quality is excellent, particularly when the cost is considered. 

 

It gets hot. Very hot. I'm wondering what I can use to stack it on top of the Bifrost. Maybe some glass blocks, something that is both heat resistant and isolating.

 

Yeah the buzz. It may be a deal breaker for me. The problem is that with this sort of equipment you have it close at hand and usually on the same desk as your computer so any noise is really noticeable. I've only just set it up so it may subside with some use or I may grow accustomed to it.

 

I'm going to break it in a bit and see what happens and then post back with some impressions.