[pdrm360]

   
Nah, it's all marketing. 

 Sure it sounds better. I went from bifrost to uber and think that it sound appreciably better and certainly worth the money. 

 
I have the same experience, the Uber definitely worth it. 

 

[wahsmoh]

   
 
 
Thanks for sharing your points.

I own an Uber. Pull the trigger and you will thank me later. I have a USB Gen 2 Uberfrost and it's still one of the most highly recommended bang for your buck DACs

 

[TMRaven]

After a while now with the Asgard2 I can say it's a nice change from the Magni.  It's slightly warmer, but going from Modi to Bifrost made more of a difference to the bass punch than Magni to Asgard2 did.  Treble seemed to be a little more resolving while not being harsh, and instrument separation is a little better during busy passages and when multiple instruments harmonize together.
 
I was expecting more of a drastic change going off of MattTCG's comments, but I'll just ride that off as half head-fi hyperbole and half HE-400's lack of ultimate scalability.
 
It also hasn't gone bad sounding randomly for me so I won't be returning it to Schiit to see if it's a lemon or not.
 
The most redeeming quality the Asgard2 has over the Magni is its volume pot play and switchable gain.  With the Magni you're basically limited to less efficient full-sized headphones.  More sensitive headphones would have very little volume pot play and the very start of Magni's pot has channel imbalance.  With the Asgard2 you can use the hardest to drive headphones down to the most sensitive IEMs with plenty of play.  Everybody already knew this though.  For now I use low gain on the HE-400 and the knob averages around 12 o'clock.

 

[zackzack]

  I own an Uber. Pull the trigger and you will thank me later. I have a USB Gen 2 Uberfrost and it's still one of the most highly recommended bang for your buck DACs

 
Mine is still susceptible to pops & cracks from my Mac Mini using the USB.

 

[soundeffect]

After a while now with the Asgard2 I can say it's a nice change from the Magni.  It's slightly warmer, but going from Modi to Bifrost made more of a difference to the bass punch than Magni to Asgard2 did.  Treble seemed to be a little more resolving while not being harsh, and instrument separation is a little better during busy passages and when multiple instruments harmonize together.

I was expecting more of a drastic change going off of MattTCG's comments, but I'll just ride that off as half head-fi hyperbole and half HE-400's lack of ultimate scalability.

It also hasn't gone bad sounding randomly for me so I won't be returning it to Schiit to see if it's a lemon or not.

The most redeeming quality the Asgard2 has over the Magni is its volume pot play and switchable gain.  With the Magni you're basically limited to less efficient full-sized headphones.  More sensitive headphones would have very little volume pot play and the very start of Magni's pot has channel imbalance.  With the Asgard2 you can use the hardest to drive headphones down to the most sensitive IEMs with plenty of play.  Everybody already knew this though.  For now I use low gain on the HE-400 and the knob averages around 12 o'clock.

The he400 I don't think it scales that high. When I had the magni and upgraded to the lyr, I didn't notice much differences if any at all, I didn't look into deeply as it wasn't worth it. To me the he400 already sounded good with the magni.

 

[K-Otar]

  After a while now with the Asgard2 I can say it's a nice change from the Magni.  It's slightly warmer, but going from Modi to Bifrost made more of a difference to the bass punch than Magni to Asgard2 did.  Treble seemed to be a little more resolving while not being harsh, and instrument separation is a little better during busy passages and when multiple instruments harmonize together.
 
I was expecting more of a drastic change going off of MattTCG's comments, but I'll just ride that off as half head-fi hyperbole and half HE-400's lack of ultimate scalability.
 
It also hasn't gone bad sounding randomly for me so I won't be returning it to Schiit to see if it's a lemon or not.
 
The most redeeming quality the Asgard2 has over the Magni is its volume pot play and switchable gain.  With the Magni you're basically limited to less efficient full-sized headphones.  More sensitive headphones would have very little volume pot play and the very start of Magni's pot has channel imbalance.  With the Asgard2 you can use the hardest to drive headphones down to the most sensitive IEMs with plenty of play.  Everybody already knew this though.  For now I use low gain on the HE-400 and the knob averages around 12 o'clock.

 
I like the Asgard 2 much better than the Magni. I’m sure you can’t come back to Magni after using the Asgard 2 for a couple months. 

 

[bearFNF]

Ditto for me, my Magni is collecting dust on a shelf and will probably be replaced with a Vali soon.  But the Asgard 2 is in for the long haul as Pre-amp and a It's normal HP amp duties.

 

[TMRaven]

Well of course there's no reason for me to use the Magni either with Asgard2 on desk, but I'm not going to say it blows the Magni away.

 

[tdockweiler]

  Well of course there's no reason for me to use the Magni either with Asgard2 on desk, but I'm not going to say it blows the Magni away.

 
Have you ever tried the Asgard 1? Believe it or not I had that for over a year as my only amp. Loved it with the D2000 and HD-600, but not as much with the HD-650.
 
My issues with the Asgard 2 is a mystery I will never ever figure out. My only idea is maybe I have tons of interference due to living in an apartment.
I bet there's tons of cell phones and wireless/Wi-FI devices nearby. I should have taken it to my mom's house to test it. Pretty sure it's not noisy power because all my other stuff is fine.
Maybe everything else filters it out better. Maybe someday I can buy a power conditioner for cheap. Probably a waste of money.
 
I'm going to try the Vali though. I actually read up on it a little and sounds like something I might like. No returns on it (for me) and I'm ok with that.
I've had my eyes on a hybrid tube amp for awhile but was waiting for a US built one.
 
BTW I bet an Asgard 2 would be great for a Grado or a DT-880/T90.

 

[ninexnine]

tdockweiler,
 
I've spent several minutes trying to find your post with the symptoms of which you complain of your Asgard 2.   I have not found that post, and have to get back to what I was doing before I read this sent to my email.  So my response is about the problem I had with my Asgard 2, and may not be what you are referring to.
 
I had a problem of what I call a haziness in the sound,  almost as if there was a fine distortion.  Managed to track it down to interference getting into the input of the amp.
So I had Blue Jean cable make me up a 1 ft. stereo cable to go between my JDS dac and the Asgard 2 for about 30 bucks.  It completely resolved the problem, and the sound is now clean and clear and made the background black silent compared to what I had before.  If thats the kind of problem your having, then thats my suggestion.
 
Cordially

 

[wahsmoh]

   
Have you ever tried the Asgard 1? Believe it or not I had that for over a year as my only amp. Loved it with the D2000 and HD-600, but not as much with the HD-650.
 
My issues with the Asgard 2 is a mystery I will never ever figure out. My only idea is maybe I have tons of interference due to living in an apartment.
I bet there's tons of cell phones and wireless/Wi-FI devices nearby. I should have taken it to my mom's house to test it. Pretty sure it's not noisy power because all my other stuff is fine.
Maybe everything else filters it out better. Maybe someday I can buy a power conditioner for cheap. Probably a waste of money.
 
I'm going to try the Vali though. I actually read up on it a little and sounds like something I might like. No returns on it (for me) and I'm ok with that.
I've had my eyes on a hybrid tube amp for awhile but was waiting for a US built one.
 
BTW I bet an Asgard 2 would be great for a Grado or a DT-880/T90.

You know it :] I've actually had the chance to listen to the Vali with my DT880 and I felt it sounded thin/cold by comparison to my Asgard as far as bass weight and tonality go. I didn't get a lot of time to mess around with the Vali or EQ in the music player. Otherwise I love my Asgard 2 because it gives the DT880s more of a weighted presence with plenty of mids to spare. I used to think my DT880 sounded thin before I was amping it properly ;D back when I used to run it to a soundcard

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Anyone try an Asgard 2 with a Dragonfly?  I am most curious on how the HE-400 pairs with the setup.

 

[tdockweiler]

  tdockweiler,
 
I've spent several minutes trying to find your post with the symptoms of which you complain of your Asgard 2.   I have not found that post, and have to get back to what I was doing before I read this sent to my email.  So my response is about the problem I had with my Asgard 2, and may not be what you are referring to.
 
I had a problem of what I call a haziness in the sound,  almost as if there was a fine distortion.  Managed to track it down to interference getting into the input of the amp.
So I had Blue Jean cable make me up a 1 ft. stereo cable to go between my JDS dac and the Asgard 2 for about 30 bucks.  It completely resolved the problem, and the sound is now clean and clear and made the background black silent compared to what I had before.  If thats the kind of problem your having, then thats my suggestion.
 
Cordially

 
That sounds very similar to the issue I had. At random it felt as if the weight of the sound would be sucked out. You can loop tracks and hear this. It felt like my ears were playing tricks on me.
On the Buena Vista Social Club CD it's like very subtle background details would magically go missing. Most bizarre thing I ever heard. Sound fading in?! What the heck..
The main issue was the sound felt very cloudy/hazy and not clear at all. Possibly because of all the interference.
 
I got the best results with the following:
Mogami W2893 interconnect cable which has very good shielding
USB cable with ferrite bead and using a powered USB hub (I tried two and with and without the hub). Even bought a USB card!
Amp removed away from PC and connected to a surge protector with filtering.
 
I thought the problem was fixed until it came back after an hour. I even tried using different wall outlets.
 
Strangely I could not hear any noise at all with this setup when no songs were being played and the volume was all the way up.
You could hear subtle changes when switching cables or surge protectors. I have a Furman SS-6B and ISobar 4 surge protector. The TrippLite ISObar is $40 and seemed to be the best.
My Micro Amp has an upgraded power supply with filtering and in 3 years I can't hear any noise at all ever. Maybe with an IEM.
 
BTW another funny symptom is that at one point I thought my amp suddenly blew up because the bass would randomly get bloated.
 
On day 3 I think it sounds pretty close in sound to my old Asgard but even warmer/bassier than I remember it being. It kind of reminded me of an E10 in sound signature.
 
I should have just moved it into a room with nothing else plugged in and no routers/cell phones with 1000 feet

 
Oh and at one point i was sure it was interference of some sort from my ethernet port and then later it was a bad USB port! Turns out it was neither because my other amps worked fine on the same setup.
 
I'm guessing that my Asgard 2 is just not compatible with my apartment!
 
Never had an amp be this susceptible to interference if that was what it was.
 
Someday I'd like to find out what was going on, but I guess it will be one of those unsolved mysteries.

 

[Mattjh90]

how does the A2 drive dt990 600ohm? 

 

[zackzack]

  how does the A2 drive dt990 600ohm? 

 
The Asgard 2 drives my T1 600 Ohm just fine. Very smooth, very airy presentation. 
 
Though I prefer Naim/Beyer A1 combination. But the Naim DAC alone costs $3500.
That  Naim system sounds so incredible and brought out the sublime best of T1 that  decided to
purchase the Beyer in a week.
 
My Bifrost/Asgard 2 system probably achieves 80% of the Naim/Beyer A1 system. 
There's still some treble glare & loose bass in some tracks. But not much else
really. Incredible bargain.