I found another reason to prefer my Asgard 2 to Vali. As we get into summer, I've been feeling the heat coming off the Asgard more and more. I decided to try to switch to the Vali for a while, as it doesn't give off as much heat. However, I've been listening to more FLAC lately. And I find that on modern albums they are often too loud on the Vali. If I lower the volume below 9 o'clock, I get channel imbalance. I get no such channel imbalance on the Asgard, and even if I did, I could use the gain switch to use a higher volume control position.
JRiver has volume leveling as an option which reduces loudness, but I find it makes the music sound muffled.
I wish there was a program for FLAC like MP3Gain for MP3s.