My impressions of the Asgard 3, multibit
Coming from a line of smaller, mostly portable DAC/amp combos, I am now set up with the Asgard 3 with the muti-bit DAC card.
My main driver for the last year and a half has been the Audioquest Dragonfly Red, and I mostly stream from Tidal HiFi to a pair of AKG Q701s.
The immediate thing that jumped out at me is how much and how detailed bass these cans can deliver when properly amped. That was probably the biggest surprise. Where the Dragonfly struggled a bit, the A3 is driving the Q701s effortlessly and produces a more relaxed and open sound.
The added power of the amp can also produce the same level of audio quality at lower volume levels, which is very nice at times.
As I still have the Dragonfly, I did a little bit of A-B testing to identify any difference between the DAC implementations. I need to preface this by stressing that the differences are quite minor, and I would be hard pressed to confidently tell them apart in a blind test. However, I do prefer the multibit over the Dragonfly for the following reasons:
- beautiful brilliant highs, cymbals sound fantastic
- less sibliance than in the Dragonfly
- improved definition of soundstage and separation of instruments, resolving even more details
That said, I am holding on to the Dragonfly for my portable rig along with the AKG N40 IEMs. It has no problem whatsoever driving those.
My main takeaway from this experience is how important the AMP part can be. Earlier, I was ascribing most of the sound improvements to a better DAC, but I am now realizing that was only one part to the story.
As for humming or hissing, my Asgard has none of these -or- my ears are too old to register it
I recon this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...