It's a pony-looking piece of schiit.

Nice review.  What DAC did you use for your tests?

Thanks for the great review. How much of the heat is radiated from the top? I'm thinking of placing my future one under my monitor which has about 6in of clearance.

6 inches of clearance should be fine. And yes, I have a newer Asgard 2 so I know about the heat production. Cheers.

Yea, what Dac did you use. It does make a bit of a differance
 
non the less though, the O2 and Vali sound nothing alike and with a Ortho like the HE 400the Asgard 2 extra power output should assits in producing a more authoriatative sound. Glad you picked up on that :3
 
for the record though I liked the vali with easier to drive Dynamic Headphones, for beyers I really enjoyed the presetation!

I think several of the talking points in this review should be more strongly qualified as the reviewer's opinion. For example, asserting that others will hear a difference between similarly spec'd solid state amplifiers is supported by zero evidence. Additionally, some of the proposed observations are in direct contradiction with the available public data regarding amplifier performance.
 
I invite the author to discuss and elaborate on his/her testing methods and reasoning that led to the conclusions presented in this review in a thread here. I am certainly curious how these conclusions were drawn and what merit they might actually have.
 
Cheers

My solution for the heat problem is to add a small laptop cooler under the asgard.
Since I am using it with a PC, the USB powering it is close enought.
Even with a crappy cooler, it still keeps the amps slightly warm instead of hot.

Hello and congratulations on a review well-done!
 
It seems this amp has a lot to offer for 250$ - class A operation, discrete componentry, internal PSU... I am considering a purchase of this amp as a present for a friend as she just got a pair of AKG K701s and I was wondering how would this amp fare with those cans.
 
Cheerio!
Antun

I always thought tube amps are better for dynamics (especially when they can be bright), so i think id probably go for valhalla insead of asgard for the K701 (thou it would be good to test that combo first...).

Hi Catspaw - whilst the K701 may sound perfectly Ok with an OTL tube like the Valhalla - they actually require more current than voltage, so in my (subjective) experience with the 701's, a good solid state amp is usually better.  I know comparing my LD MKIV and NFB-12 (properly volume matched), the SS NFB-12 definitely sounded better to me (again subjective).  I just thought the bass 'wasn't quite there' with the LD.

I completely agree. I find the K701 quite devious in that regard and they do work better with high-current amps. Perhaps people don't bother with finding a good match for them but affordable or not, they are not so easy to get along with. 

Brooko, I was making a far to wide generalization. You are probably right (since you actualy know that headphone).
Interestingly enought, I read a review that stated that the HD 800 sounded better with an asgard than with  valhalla or LYR (since asgard seems to be warmer).
 
I guess its impossible to know for certain thou, without trying yourself.