[Beatwolf]

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a used, but pristine Asgard 2 amp, to go with my HD 650's. Until now I have been running them on the Asus Essence ST via the on-board headphone out.

Currently I am using the RCA out on the sound-card to the Asgard 2. I am looking for recommendations on a DAC, or does it make sense at all to upgrade to a stand-alone DAC, as the one on the Essence is already quite good? I am thinking of just going with the Modi 2 or Modi 2 Uber. I mainly listen to FLAC's and 320kbps MP3's via Foobar, music style are: electronic, techno, heavy metal, ambient, rock, hip hop, jazz etc. Very varied styles, but mainly electronic music.

 

[DoctaCosmos]

I’ve had great success with the Peachtree Audio shift. Will be doing a review shortly but it’s the most convenient piece of gear I’ve found, sounds fantastic, and plugs into an iPhone via normal usb/lightning cable and it even utilizes the eq in spotify. Got mine for $100 luckily but They just had them on sale for $200 on their website.

 

[PurpleAngel]

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a used, but pristine Asgard 2 amp, to go with my HD 650's. Until now I have been running them on the Asus Essence ST via the on-board headphone out.

Currently I am using the RCA out on the sound-card to the Asgard 2. I am looking for recommendations on a DAC, or does it make sense at all to upgrade to a stand-alone DAC, as the one on the Essence is already quite good? I am thinking of just going with the Modi 2 or Modi 2 Uber. I mainly listen to FLAC's and 320kbps MP3's via Foobar, music style are: electronic, techno, heavy metal, ambient, rock, hip hop, jazz etc. Very varied styles, but mainly electronic music.

Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the Essence ST card?
Have you tried the Unified Xonar Drivers?
http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/
The Asus Essence cards come with a nice DAC chip, you might consider to just keep using the Essence ST and just upgrading the op-amps (operational amplifiers).
Have you installed the Foobar's WASAPI component?

 

[Beatwolf]

Sorry for the late reply -

yes motherboard audio is disabled in the bios, and I just installed the Unified Xonar drivers.. I did not install the Foobar WASAPI component? Is there really a difference in the sound quality? I'm quite sceptical. However I have seriously considered upgrading the op-amps...been reading a lot about it here on the forums.

I also read an article were this soundcard was compared to the 02 DAC another very expensive DAC as well as some others, the Asus and the expensive DAC came out on top, and the listeners could persistently not hear any diference. So I will keep the Asus for now

 

[RichGuy]

I have an Essence ST and my favorite sound comes from using the Essence ST's digital coax out to my MHDT NOS tube DAC, this is the most musical combo I have found. I have both an MHDT Havana and an MHDT balanced Stockholm, I love them both great sounding DAC's. Even though I don't use the Essence ST's DAC I do get the best sound through its digital output than any other I've had in my system, so the Essence ST stays even if only for its digital coax out.

 

[Beatwolf]

Thanks for the input RichGuy Didn't no that tube DAC's are a thing. How much would you say one would have to spend in order to get an upgrade from the Essence ST DAC?

 

[RichGuy]

hanks for the input RichGuy Didn't no that tube DAC's are a thing. How much would you say one would have to spend in order to get an upgrade from the Essence ST DAC?

I am not sure what you need to spend to be an upgrade but my experience has been with two MHDT NOS tube DAC's the first was my Havana I bought used on another forum a few years ago, I loved it, one of my favorite changes I've made to my system for 2 channel music, this DAC has excellent detail and just brings music to another level. I paid $550 for my Havana used it came with the original tube plus another tube that was an upgrade.

Around March of last year I bought another MHDT NOS tube this time I bought a balanced Stockholm which I bought new directly from MHDT this was $1,295 new. The sound of the Stockholm is similar to the Havana but I would say has a little more detail than the Havana but both have MHDT's extremely musical sound quality. Both the Havana and the Stockholm were available as either standard or balanced versions. I still own and use both DAC's and love their sound. I have several different sets of tubes that I have experimented with in the Stockholm.

Here's a pic of the Havana

Here's the balanced Stockholm. The balanced versions are slightly larger with 2 tubes and have the additional balanced XLR input/outputs plus a BNC input as well

 

[Redcarmoose]

Depending on a wide range of different stuff, WASABI is going to get you a boost is SQ. It depends on your computer and separate DAC.

It’s easy to be sceptical but if you were using a really slow computer 8 years ago which had timing issues, WASAPI could fix it.

Your Asgard 2 is going to be pretty hard to beat, enjoy!



I will say this.
My Asgard One wins out over much of my equipment. Not over the W5 LE, but it wins over the $3000 WM 1Z portable amp. Wins out over my Stereo AV unit. The Asgard is a better amp than what came with my $600 Cambridge DACMagic Plus.

It’s better than my $500 W3 too.

 

[Avean]

Interested to know if you can hear any difference cause im running HD650 with Asus Essence STX as well.
(Offtopic: Is PurpleAngel an bot? He writes the same recommendations in every thread)