So rather than do a “total” here is the Asgard 3 review or experience, which has been done several times already with this $199 Schitt marvel…this is just about my experience and some of the things that are important to me, my music, tastes and headphones I use day to day.
I use a lot of Schiit stuff here on daily basis. Lyr 3, Jotenheim, used to have a Vahalla 2, OG Lyr, OG Asgard and a Magnius.
One thing that i did notice with the Asgard 3 is that its no longer Class A for the most part, but the first 500 mw is “heavily biased” into Class A and and as Schiit states its like having a 1/2 watt Class A amp with a 3.5 watt Class AB turbo charger…hmm sound like an American Muscle car paradigm!! LOL.
What this means to me is it doesnt run “hot” enough to fry eggs on like the first generation Asgard! I stack it in my Schiit Stack and run it for hours and its just fine…no real heat issues.
The volume knob attached to a nice Blue Velvet Alps is buttery smooth…easy to adjust. One of the first things I do with a new amp is look for hum and hiss at all volume levels with both high and low gains and a wide variety of impedance headphones.
For the most part the amp is very quiet. No audible hiss heard. But one thing I did notice at first was an audible RF noise in high gain at the 3pm to full volume pot position…no other Schiit amps I have exhibited this much of RF pickup or noise!
After a little cable swapping and re-routing the RF noise went totally away. What was it. One of by Blue Jeans interconnects I have had for years was the culprit. Only one of the cable pair was at fault…I will have to take a look at this cable later…it may be its only shield connected on one end and a simple reversal of the direction its connected may fix this RF pickup. So in the end the Asgard 3 here is pretty much dead silent. No internal transformer hum or mechanical transformer lamination noise.
One minor complaint I have is the missing ON/OFF light or led on the front panel that many used to complain about as being too bright…the now usual white led is on inside the unit on the pcb and you can see this thru the ventalation holes on top. But in my stack its not well “visable”…not a big deal sonically at all…just my personal I miss that dang light!! LOL
Like most all of Schiit amps in this smaller form factor, when you lift it up it feels solid and well built. Its a very simple discrete amp with no real frills, the volume knob, the gain select switch and internal I/O or addon adapter switch if you choose to purchase. Mine is the naked Asgard 3…I use the Schiit Bifrost 2 MB dac almost exclusively…its that good IMO.
One thing when I sent back my Magnius and Modius (another story)…I requested Schiit to send me the Asgard 3…and I said color doenst matter…they sent me a silver one! It was like an expectant father not know the sex of a child before birth!! When I opend the box and immediatley said " they sent me a silver one!!" like it really mattered…I wonder what I would have said if it was the “black” version??? Hmmm.
Power wise its stated this will drive most headphones out there…and even Amos from down under even tried his Susvaras on the amp and from his review at head-fi it drove them well!
So for my first listen I used Focal Clears and my Heddphones then onto HD600’s. All were able to be played at very loud levels with the HEDDs being the most difficult load on the amp. With 5 watts etc there is more than enough power to do the job.
With the HEDDs i could actually turn up the volume knob to 100 % on low gain to get them to “come Alive”…this was interesting to me…I dont know if the volume pot is logrithmic or not…on the Magni’s Schiit used log tapers and it helps get you out of the low potential channel “tracking” area of a pot.
I mainly used high gain with the HEDDS at approx 9-10 volume positions. Withe the Clears Low gain and around 9 to 11 oclock positions. The Clears are an easy load more so than the HEDDS. The Senn HD600 needs to be in the high gain position and about 10 oclock.
From the volume pot settings the Jot appears to have more power…ie lower postions on the pot for the same level. This may be due to the Asgard having a log pot? I will ask Schiit this.
So the amp has a lot of power and can drive most headphones, making the amp for $199 and excellent entry level amp that will last a long time…and its a 5 year warranty!! You might say but what about the Magnius…its another good choice if you “need or want” balanced capability…but the Magnius only has a 2 yr warranty…still great but…and the Asgard makes no bones about not having balanced outs…
How does it sound…Side by side the Schiit Jot, plug and unplug. level matched they are very much the same sounding signature to me…I had a hard time telling them apart! Using only SE of of course.
A lot of Jot owners state the Jot is a warmer or softer amp…and I agree there and the Asgard IMO is pretty much similar…its like a gentle high pass filter is being employed…just a little. This pairs very nicely with "bright " headphones…makes things very musical and not fatiguing at all…nothing like the THX sterile sound signature…I dont have any Grados here ATM but this would be a nice amp for them IMO.
The Focal Clears some state has a metallic sounding high end, this amp with the Clears doesnt exhibit this “trait” for me at all…so again maybe a good match for those that experience this?
There isnt much more to say about the Asgard 3 from here…for all its improvements. 3.5X more power than Asgard 2, lower heat due to the Class A and AB design and coupled with the Continuity design to eliminate crossover distortion, an new greatly improved power supply with a 48VA transformer (2x that of Asgard 2) and more AC filtering at a cost that is $50 lower than prior Asgards makes for a brilliant amp for anyone wanting to get into this crazy headphone “thing”…and if your “Really” cheap a B-stock can be had for even less!!!
Alex
Note: On the recent Schiit Show at the Schiitr, I asked about the volume potentiometers taper. Jason indicates its a log taper type 10 which mimics the hearing response closely of a human ear....so this is why you have to turn up the vol knob so much at times. Its not a linear "thing" so dont thing because you have to turn up the pot more so that other amps with linear or audio taper pots that this amp in underpowered. It is not.
