[immtbiker]

Simichrome polish will remove the fingerprints residue. Also, it leaves behind a protective finish that will aid in preventing future finish issues.
 
It's made for chrome on cars and motorcycles. I use it on all of my scuba gear (lots of salt water corrosion). Also works great on tarnished interconnects and silver bracelets
(from the oils on your body).
 
Apply, let dry, buff off.
No need to rinse and repeat 

 .

 

[yianni]

Anybody use the asgard with the hd650's? how does it compare to a tube amp like the LDIII?

 

[dayamax]

Quote:

Anybody use the asgard with the hd650's? how does it compare to a tube amp like the LDIII?

+1.. If someone has heard both amps, please let us know.

 

[BournePerfect]

I can't seem to find the Asgard's power ratings anywhere. How many WPC does it put out at 50 ohms? I believe the M-Stage does about .5 watts. Looking to try one of these in the short term anyway for the HE-6. Thanks.
 
-Daniel

 

[Sophonax]

I remember reading somewhere that the Asgard puts out 1 W into 50 ohms -- I can't back that up with a source, though.
 
In any case, have you heard about the Schiit Lyr?  I guess that's their next project, which will be a hybrid amp designed specifically with the new orthos (like the LCD-2 and HE-6) in mind, capable of delivering 6 W into 32 ohms, for a price of $449.  It was mentioned a little bit here:
 
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/schiit/1.html
 
I don't know when it's supposed to be released, but it might be worthwhile to wait for one of those instead of the Asgard, if you don't mind the price differential.

 

[zlobby]

Quote:

I remember reading somewhere that the Asgard puts out 1 W into 50 ohms -- I can't back that up with a source, though.
 
In any case, have you heard about the Schiit Lyr?  I guess that's their next project, which will be a hybrid amp designed specifically with the new orthos (like the LCD-2 and HE-6) in mind, capable of delivering 6 W into 32 ohms, for a price of $449.  It was mentioned a little bit here:
 
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/schiit/1.html
 
I don't know when it's supposed to be released, but it might be worthwhile to wait for one of those instead of the Asgard, if you don't mind the price differential.

From that 6moons review...
 
"The single watt which the Mosfets put out into 50Ω at clipping becomes a mere 130mW into 600Ω (600mW into 100Ω, 260mW into 300Ω)."

 

[Skylab]

Right - for high impedance headphones, the Schiit amp of choice today is the Valhalla.  It was surprisingly good (given it's relatively low price) with the 600 ohm Beyer T1.  But it is not so great with low impedance headphones.  So far there is not a One Schiit Fits All

 

[Yikes]

I'm a huge fan of the Asgard. It's pure magic with my HE-5LE's. Even though the claim is that the final production (sic) HE-6's are as easy to drive as the 5LE's I found the Asgard HE-6 pairing overall to be inferior to the Asgard HE-5LE pairing. I think the HE-6 are great (IMO they spank the LCD-2's) but I'd say the Asgard liked driving the 6's, whereas the Asgard Loves driving the 5LE's, go figure?
 
This opinion was formed at the recent NY meet, so it was under less than ideal conditions. At some point I'll borrow a set of 6's and evaluate them at home, but not until my finances improve. Until then I'm quite happy with my Schiity Asgard driving my lowly HE-5LE's.

 

[Yikes]

Also, the reality is that 130 mW (.13 Watt) @ 600 Ω, 260 mW (.26 Watt) @ 300 Ω, 600 mW (.6 Watt) @ 100 Ω, and 1 watt @ 50 Ω (1000 mW) is an indication that the amp is infact acting as a near perfect current source (Doubles power as the load impedance is halved).
 
Everything else being equal (It seldom is) a headphones Efficiency or Sensitivity works this way. For every 3 dB increase in Sound Preasure Level (Measured in dB) it normally takes twice the Power (Watts).
 
So let's take for example a set of Beyer T-1 headphones. The T-1's are rated at 102 dB/1 mW and 600 Ω this means that:
 
T-1 SPL/Power
1 mW = 102 dB
2 mW = 105 dB
4 mW = 108 dB
8 mW = 111 dB
16 mW = 114 dB
32 mW = 117 dB
64 mW = 120 dB
128 mW = 123 dB and no one should be listening this loud anyway
 
Or with the HE-6 Headphones rated at 83.5 dB/ 1 mW (According to Playback http://www.avguide.com/review/hifiman-he-6-planar-magnetic-headphones-playback-37?page=1 )
1 mW = 83 dB
2 mW = 86 dB
4 mW = 89 dB
8 mW = 92 dB
16 mW = 95 dB
32 mW = 98 dB
64 mW = 101 dB
128 mW = 103 dB
256 mW = 106 dB
512 mW = 109 dB
1024 mW (Roughly 1 Watt) = 112 dB
 
Or how about some Denon AH-D7000's (Rated at 108 dB/ 1 mW and 25 Ω)
1 mW = 108 dB
2 mW = 111 dB
4 mW = 114 dB
8 mW = 117 dB
16 mW = 120 dB
32 mW = 123 dB
64 mW = 126 dB
128 mW = 129 dB
256 mW = 132 dB
512 mW = 135 dB
1024 mW (Roughly 1 Watt) = 138 dB (Which doesn't really matter you'd have blown your brains out before this)
 
However IT'S REALLY NOT THIS SIMPLE! Headphones are not simple loads (Purly resistive), their impedance tends to vary with frequency and there are elements of Capacitance and Inductance in the load (I believe that this is refered to as Reactance). So unfortunately it's not as simple as looking at the sensitivity and Impedance specs and doing some simple math. The only real way to insure that a given amp/headphone combination will work well together is to try it. The Specs are at best an indication of how the mating will actually perform.
 

 

[revolink24]

Quote:

Also, the reality is that 130 mW (.13 Watt) @ 600 Ω, 260 mW (.26 Watt) @ 300 Ω, 600 mW (.6 Watt) @ 100 Ω, and 1 watt @ 50 Ω (1000 mW) is an indication that the amp is infact acting as a near perfect current source (Doubles power as the load impedance is halved).
 
Everything else being equal (It seldom is) a headphones Efficiency or Sensitivity works this way. For every 3 dB increase in Sound Preasure Level (Measured in dB) it normally takes twice the Power (Watts).
 
So let's take for example a set of Beyer T-1 headphones. The T-1's are rated at 102 dB/1 mW and 600 Ω this means that:
 
 
 
However IT'S REALLY NOT THIS SIMPLE! Headphones are not simple loads (Purly resistive), their impedance tends to vary with frequency and there are elements of Capacitance and Inductance in the load (I believe that this is refered to as Reactance). So unfortunately it's not as simple as looking at the sensitivity and Impedance specs and doing some simple math. The only real way to insure that a given amp/headphone combination will work well together is to try it. The Specs are at best an indication of how the mating will actually perform.
 

Yep, impedance is essentially made up of resistance and the combination of capacitive and inductive reactances (though reactance is the imaginary part of the vector addition, leading to some complex formulas beyond my knowledge.) For what its worth, I can echo your sentiments from the NY meet, despite its less than ideal conditions. The HE6 was pickier than the HE5 which was pickier than the HE4. (And that to me the HE6 clobbered the other $1000ish headphones.) It seems logical to me, since it's the same in the full sized planar-magnetic speaker world.

 

[immtbiker]

Quote:

. I think the HE-6 are great (IMO they spank the LCD-2's) but I'd say the Asgard liked driving the 6's, whereas the Asgard Loves driving the 5LE's, go figure?

Go figure. Did you mean the Valhalla?
 

 

[kboe]

 
 
My Asgard just arrived today and its burning in with my Cardas 702s. I'll post impressions soon.

 

[kboe]

 
 
Well, at about 5 hours burn in. I can tell this amp is not only good, not only really good, but good enough I'll not seek a solid state amp to compete with it in my rig.  And I've heard some of the best solid state amps in my price range I usually operate at.  Right now I'm using my ALO iPod dock with 160 gig iPod filled with uncompressed files.  This feeds over Cardas Quadlink 5-Cs into the Asgard.  For now the supplied power cable does its duty, but after Christmas, a Cardas Twinlink will take its place.  The sound is huge, wide, deep, blooming and rocking my usual assortment of soundtracks.  I know it will only improve with burn in, so I'll wait till Christmas day to post further impressions.  That should put about 200 hours on it.  Till then, happy tunes (for me)!

 

[Caphead78]

Thanks for the impressions! Have you heard the Concerto and if so do you have any comparisons between the two units?
 
Quote:

 
 
Well, at about 5 hours burn in. I can tell this amp is not only good, not only really good, but good enough I'll not seek a solid state amp to compete with it in my rig.  And I've heard some of the best solid state amps in my price range I usually operate at.  Right now I'm using my ALO iPod dock with 160 gig iPod filled with uncompressed files.  This feeds over Cardas Quadlink 5-Cs into the Asgard.  For now the supplied power cable does its duty, but after Christmas, a Cardas Twinlink will take its place.  The sound is huge, wide, deep, blooming and rocking my usual assortment of soundtracks.  I know it will only improve with burn in, so I'll wait till Christmas day to post further impressions.  That should put about 200 hours on it.  Till then, happy tunes (for me)!

 

[kboe]

 
 
I haven't heard the Concerto, but I did own the Opera, and found it only slightly more refined.