[Magick Man]

The opamp upgrade to my EF5 was impressive too, so much so that I have no desire whatsoever to upgrade amps. Kinda makes me wonder why HiFiMan doesn't just go ahead and use the better ones. It's $50 very well spent.

 

[RushNerd]

Quote:

So I take it your STX now sounds better then Schiit?
 
 

Sorry to thread necro, but i'm probably buying a Asgard today and have the Essence ST. Will be getting D5000's soon.
 
Do you really think it would be worth chip rolling over buying the Asgard? I foresee the Asgard in the very least be a lot louder and more powerful.

 

[ben_r_]

Quote:

Sorry to thread necro, but i'm probably buying a Asgard today and have the Essence ST. Will be getting D5000's soon.
 
Do you really think it would be worth chip rolling over buying the Asgard? I foresee the Asgard in the very least be a lot louder and more powerful.

Honestly seeing as you dont even need an amp at all to drive the DX000 cans, why you want another amp in the chain?

 

[RushNerd]

Quote:

Honestly seeing as you dont even need an amp at all to drive the DX000 cans, why you want another amp in the chain?

It's true they don't need an amp for adequate listening volume. But from experience I know they are some serious cans to be contended with when they are properly amped with a lot of current.
 
I won't be using the Essence's Headphone amp, rather just the stereo RCA jacks turning the card into my DAC and feeding it to the Asgard. Hopefully this will work well.

 

[stv014]

A good solution at low price would be to keep the original op amps, and get an O2 amplifier (~$150). It is better suited to driving low impedance headphones than the TPA6120 on the sound card, and in terms of objective (measurable) performance driving the AH-Dx000 it is not unlikely to be better than the Asgard as well. I have also seen people having interference (ground loop) issues when using sound cards as the source to the Asgard.

 

[RushNerd]

Quote:

A good solution at low price would be to keep the original op amps, and get an O2 amplifier (~$150). It is better suited to driving low impedance headphones than the TPA6120 on the sound card, and in terms of objective (measurable) performance driving the AH-Dx000 it is not unlikely to be better than the Asgard as well. I have also seen people having interference (ground loop) issues when using sound cards as the source to the Asgard.

Changing the Asgard's powersource seems to change that. Also i'm pretty sure the asgard is a step UP from the O2 with Denons, so no.