DAC for Schiit Asgard

[formula1]

Quote:

I have the asgard and had an hd598.  Not needed.  It did not open up the headphone at all.  It sounded the same through my gaming Astro mixamp. The only benefit i have found from an amp for the hd598 is that it gets louder.  Nothing more.

 
Really? dont you think is there something wrong with the amp? the 598's sound pretty good when amped (more soundstage and bass impact)

 

[Fearless1]

Quote:

I'm thinking of Asgard + Streamer + He-400. Good idea?

That will be a fine combo. The HE-400s are easy to drive but really open up with power.

 

[MattTCG]

Quote:

That will be a fine combo. The HE-400s are easy to drive but really open up with power.

 
^^What he said 

^^

 

[DoctaCosmos]

Yes i thought so too with the bass impact but it was more of a hat trick.  The driver definitely had more excursion but i didn't feel the bass actually hit much harder.  But yes the amp did improve things a little but the asgard is definitely overkill. 

 

[hodgjy]

One of the prevailing opinions is that dynamic headphones scale much better with amping than orthos.  Of course, there are exceptions to this, but many people have said the HE-400 and HE-500 don't improve much as your amps get more expensive and more powerful.  However, on the other hand, the HD-600 is known for it's legendary ability to scale up with amps.
 

 

[Llloyd]

Quote:

One of the prevailing opinions is that dynamic headphones scale much better with amping than orthos.  Of course, there are exceptions to this, but many people have said the HE-400 and HE-500 don't improve much as your amps get more expensive and more powerful.  However, on the other hand, the HD-600 is known for it's legendary ability to scale up with amps.
 

The HD 600 is also known to be easily bested by the HE-500.  Obviously it is a fraction of the cost but I thought I would just clarify since your tone came across a little strange to me.  I've read many posts dealing with the HE-500 (and I own it). 
 
It's more along the lines of it is not a picky headphone at all.  I've not tested it with a ton of power, but with my experiences it isn't the power that matters so much as the topology and quality of the amp.  I feel that it can improve with power, and there are many reported differences in the amount of punch that comes from the Lyr over less powerful amps.  Whether or not that has to do with the amount of wattage or if its just a quality of the amplifier I do not know
 
I've read plenty of posts of people in each of the HE-500 threads that are truely amazed running it on speaker taps though, so I can't really agree with you there.  What amplifiers they were using before that is not totally clear, but I imagine at the very least they were running it out of the headphone port of their integrated amp.
 
So yes power isn't everything and the HE-400/500 is not a very picky headphone, but it can scale and to my ears easily bests something like a reasonably amped HD600 (have not heard the 600 in a super hifi rig) for well, double the price but if you include amp cost I feel that the HE-500 still competes there in value.
 
With that said, a cheap powerful amp isn't really going to do much for you, but I guess that is a little obvious?

 

[mrarroyo]

I enjoy the HE500 over the HD580/600 but all have their place/use. You could buy an used Marantz 22XX receiver from the 1970's and be very happy driving any of these cans plus you can use the speaker outs to drive a K1000 and Stax electrostatics (via energizer box).

 

[DoctaCosmos]

what about the he500 compared to hd650

 

[MattTCG]

Well, the hd650 wins on comfort, but I'd take the he500 all day for sound signature. My 2c...

 

[Llloyd]

Quote:

Well, the hd650 wins on comfort, but I'd take the he500 all day for sound signature. My 2c...

nevermind the superior EVERYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH SOUND.  sound signature my 2c