Class A power amp Schiit possibilities
A 50 watt class A power amp: absolutely up to $2K
A 40 watt class A power amp: surely up to $2K
A 20 watt class A power amp: ... maybe If at $1k I could buy 2 as monoblocks, then sure. I think that might be you market
OK, some background. I have a 50 watt class A power amp that I love. What I want for listening to (classical, sorry) chamber music or orchestral music is that full timbre, bloom that I hear live (row M for orchestra, 1st or 2nd row in the balcony preferred). My Forte Model 1 does a marvelous job of this. (For technical reasons related to the Thiel 3.0 speaker, the Vidar will not work in this system, so I have not direct comparison.) This is in a fairly small room so 40 watts class A is OK, though 50 watts would be better.
I also do a lot of listening with headphones, ranging from Massdrop HiFiMann 4xx at under $200 to the Focal Elear. For that I use a Schiit multibit DAC. At the low end I love the Vali 2 HP/pre-amp and higher up the price chain the MJ2 (stock tubes, which I need to upgrade). However neither of these delivers the musical quality class A HP/pre-amp I have from some years back. (See below) In contrast I find the other Schiit pre-amps too “lean”, they just do not provide the richness of tone that I hear live and with my class A HP/pre-amp. (I have not tried Freya.)
I was hoping the new Lyr (tung-sol) would fill that gap, but no. The new topology is an improvement, but to my ear, in current form, does not get one to class A quality sound. For the price it is very good and has found a place in one of my systems, yet it does not give richness of tone I want in my best system. So the HP/pre-amp I will use with Yggy2 is my trusty class A unit of old. (I have not heard the Asgard 2.)
I am an ardent fan of SET and Class A amplification, not on ‘ideological’ grounds, but on the basis of the sound quality I hear. So keep working with that idea!
My ‘trusty’ class A HP/pre-amp is the Headroom Desktop DAC-amp, maxed out version, used only as as a headphone/pre-amp. I’m guessing the amplifier part of this unit would come about $1k, so it is twice as expensive as the Lyr (3).
All the best, keep up the wonderful work
NF