[ev666il]

But I dabble in just about every musical genre, including hard rock and metal. But sadly, 99.9% of hard rock and metal recordings sound like absolute garbage. The music is amazing, but the mastering on their albums is anything but.

I agree to an extent. It is true that hard rock and metal have suffered from the Loudness War as much as most other genres (with perhaps the exception of typically "audiophile" genres like classical and jazz)—and it is true that even some of the pre-Loudness War era records weren't all that great to begin with, veracious though it might be for all genres—but there are more good-sounding hard rock and metal albums out there than one would think. I've been slowly but steadily building my personal collection of such records, and an ever-growing wish list. If you'd like to compare notes on these, feel free to send me a PM.

In the meantime, thank you for your answer

 

[Degree]

I primarily listen to popular and obscure rock, pop, singer-songwriter acoustic stuff and EDM. But I dabble in just about every musical genre, including hard rock and metal. But sadly, 99.9% of hard rock and metal recordings sound like absolute garbage. The music is amazing, but the mastering on their albums is anything but.

It's so frustrating becasue hard rock and metal should have some of the most powerful sounding recordings known to man, but instead, they are almost always dynamically compressed to death and all of their power and tone has been destroyed.

As far as which balanced amp (that I personally know well) I think would be the best for hard rock and metal recordings, I would say the Jotunhiem would be the worst possible choice for any kind of dynamically compressed music due to it's harsh and hyper-revealing nature.

Currently, my favorite balanced amp that I use when I'm going to listen to less than well-mastered music (but it also sounds fantastic with a good recording as well) is my Massdrop x Cavalli LCX. It has this amazing ability to bring out the tone and body of even relatively crappy sounding recordings (but it can't work miracles) and somehow reduce the recordings harshness, without sounding soft. It's like it's somehow able to let all the good stuff through, while filtering out most of the bad stuff. And now it's only $200 bucks on Drop.com, which makes it IMHO the best bang-for-your-buck balanced amp you can get, and a great place to start your balanced amp journey.

Noticed you have both the 789 and Asgard 3. Would love to know your thoughts between both of them

 

[XERO1]

Noticed you have both the 789 and Asgard 3. Would love to know your thoughts between both of them

I'm still burning the 789 in, but I'll post my opinion about it and how it compares to the A3 soon.

But this much I can tell you now, I like it a lot better than the Jot!

 

[Chris Kaoss]

I primarily listen to popular and obscure rock, pop, singer-songwriter acoustic stuff and EDM. But I dabble in just about every musical genre, including hard rock and metal. But sadly, 99.9% of hard rock and metal recordings sound like absolute garbage. The music is amazing, but the mastering on their albums is anything but.

It's so frustrating becasue hard rock and metal should have some of the most powerful sounding recordings known to man, but instead, they are almost always dynamically compressed to death and all of their power and tone has been destroyed.

Than have a listen to "Apex" from "Unleash the Archers".
This is great musicianship on (power)metal you may have missed in the past.


In your opinion, is the Asgard superior to the Jot soundwise?

 

[XERO1]

Than have a listen to "Apex" from "Unleash the Archers".
This is great musicianship on (power)metal you may have missed in the past.


In your opinion, is the Asgard superior to the Jot soundwise?

Thanks. I'll check that album out.

And yes, I think the A3 is a better sounding amp overall compared to the Jot.

The Jot just goes too far over the line in it's pursuit of absolute transparency, and it sacrifices too much of the music's natural tone and body to get there.

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Thank you, @XERO1.
Really appreciate your thoughts about.

Have fun listen to them.

Btw. Listen to this right at the moment with my Monitor 5 on my BTR5 usb dac.
Can't get enough. ^^

 

[cgb3]

I've been listening to my Asgard 3 since early December. Great amp, a major improvement over my 20 year old Creek OBH-11 (with linear wall wart). I paired it with a Schiit Modius DAC last week. All was golden, until last night. After an hours listen, suddenly, major hum, cracks, pops. Remove the Asgard 3 from the mix, and return the Creek. All is well.

I checked again this morning. The Asgard 3 hums, crackles, and pops, with no input, on a different AC circuit. Quick RM number from Schiit, 2 day mail with insurance from the USPS, $30.00. Schiit doesn't do cross-shipping.

I'm a little bummed this new of an electronic device crapped out. I've been buying electronic devices a long time. This is the first time I've had to send one back for repair. Frankly, it gives me pause as to my future Schiit purchases. (In all fairness, Schiit has a good reputation for quality, and the Asgard 3 has a 5 yr. warranty).

I'll post back when my Asgard 3 is repaired.

 

[Rattle]

I've been listening to my Asgard 3 since early December. Great amp, a major improvement over my 20 year old Creek OBH-11 (with linear wall wart). I paired it with a Schiit Modius DAC last week. All was golden, until last night. After an hours listen, suddenly, major hum, cracks, pops. Remove the Asgard 3 from the mix, and return the Creek. All is well.

I checked again this morning. The Asgard 3 hums, crackles, and pops, with no input, on a different AC circuit. Quick RM number from Schiit, 2 day mail with insurance from the USPS, $30.00. Schiit doesn't do cross-shipping.

I'm a little bummed this new of an electronic device crapped out. I've been buying electronic devices a long time. This is the first time I've had to send one back for repair. Frankly, it gives me pause as to my future Schiit purchases. (In all fairness, Schiit has a good reputation for quality, and the Asgard 3 has a 5 yr. warranty).

I'll post back when my Asgard 3 is repaired.

Just bad luck man, everything has failure rates. I have bought like 10 different things from them, none have failed over the last couple years. I've had the Asgard 3 since launch and it's probably been on more than it's been off. No issues runs cool and no noise whatsoever. I'm sure the replacement will be fine and with a 5 year warranty to boot.

 

[cgb3]

Just bad luck man, everything has failure rates. I have bought like 10 different things from them, none have failed over the last couple years. I've had the Asgard 3 since launch and it's probably been on more than it's been off. No issues runs cool and no noise whatsoever. I'm sure the replacement will be fine and with a 5 year warranty to boot.

You're entirely right. Everthing fails. It wasn't my intention to "crap on Schiit".

 

[Rattle]

You're entirely right. Everthing fails. It wasn't my intention to "crap on Schiit".

It's cool I didn't mean to sound like you did. It's a bummer when stuff breaks.

 

[GearMe]

Just bad luck man, everything has failure rates. I have bought like 10 different things from them, none have failed over the last couple years. I've had the Asgard 3 since launch and it's probably been on more than it's been off. No issues runs cool and no noise whatsoever. I'm sure the replacement will be fine and with a 5 year warranty to boot.

+1

 

[Sqmeyer]

My original Modi 1 still works. It does not sound great in comparison to the current generation but it still works. Im not sure that I would say my A3 runs "cool" though... I would love to hear how the repair process goes though as I have never had to interact with them in that way.

 

[cgb3]

My original Modi 1 still works. It does not sound great in comparison to the current generation but it still works. Im not sure that I would say my A3 runs "cool" though... I would love to hear how the repair process goes though as I have never had to interact with them in that way.

Cool is apparently relative. My old Creek OBH-11 is cool to the touch, but then it's power supply is not in the enclosure.

My Asgard 3, with a Modius DAC, connected with RCA (good quality Canare cables with Neutrik connectors) was warm to the touch. I guess ~100 F. The Asgard 3 connected to my previous ChiFi Loxjie D10 (a strange looking but good sounding DAC, with Sabre's recent ES9038Q2M chip) was another (guess) 10 degrees warmer. I'll take some direct readings with my IR gun and MM temp probe when my Asgard is returned.

I plan to place a couple of these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NYYKX7B/ref=twister_B07NY16GJK?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 between my Asgard 3 and Modius. Can't hurt.

 

[XERO1]

The score so far (to my ears)....

LCX - BAL = 10
789 - BAL = 9
A3 - SE = 8.5
789 - SE = 8
LCX - SE = 7
JOT - BAL = 6
JOT - SE = 5

I'll go into more detail later on, but this scorecard basically sums up my overall opinion of these amps.

But I will say that the level of SQ that you can get from the LCX's balanced out is simply amazing. No $200 amp should be capable of sounding this good!

 

[Odin412]

Currently, my favorite balanced amp that I use when I'm going to listen to less than well-mastered music (but it also sounds fantastic with a good recording as well) is my Massdrop x Cavalli LCX. It has this amazing ability to bring out the tone and body of even relatively crappy sounding recordings (but it can't work miracles) and somehow reduce the recordings harshness, without sounding soft. It's like it's somehow able to let all the good stuff through, while filtering out most of the bad stuff. And now it's only $200 bucks on Drop.com, which IMHO makes it the best bang-for-your-buck balanced amp you can get, and a great place to start your balanced amp journey.

I have the original Cavalli Liquid Carbon (which I believe sounds the same as the Massdrop version) and I love it - it is a remarkable amp. I'm glad that Massdrop keeps making it so more people can enjoy it.