Wow, never seen those before
I am definitely not trying to self-promote, especially since I wouldn’t get anything out of this, but I actually just made a new thread that describes my experiences and observations coming from multiple $100 DACs to a $500 to a $799 and finally to a $3500 DAC – “My Journey and Experiences with DACs.” Maybe those descriptions will help you with what you may potentially get by moving up tiers. Other than that, I am more than happy to answer any questions with my personal experiences if you are still curious.
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I love marketing.
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Most modern motherboard dacs are decent and work in a pinch, but it’s not ideal and doesn’t really compete with a higher quality dac imo. If you are on a budget it makes sense to grab a nice amp and use the motherboard dac, but down the line grabbing a nice standalone dac is worthwhile
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I personally prefer the analytical pads in terms of sound, I think it might address some of the issues you have although it is not as elevated in the bass
Gotcha, then also look for the emu teak as well if you can’t find an ebony as they are both more even sounding headphones
One note on the lyr 3, you would be smoothing the sound a bit more and also reducing impact a tad on the lyr 3 vs the asgard 3, solid amp imo
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Nice. I’m using an MSI Z390 motherboard with that DAC. So it looks like this DAC is definitely holding me back in terms of good sound quality at high SPL.
Could I bypass that by getting it without the tube? I assume that is all caused by the tube it comes with? It has more wattage than the Asgard which is my main concern, as I want wattage to be overkill if possible. Since (at least in car audio) having more wattage always sounds better (dynamic range, transient response) than more gain/signal.
Not exactly (as I don’t think you can do that without a decent amount of mods or sacrificing the sound quality of the amp?), although you could grab a nos tube that is known for a more quick and impactful sound, but having a tube in the signal path will be slower than a full solid state design for the most part. This being said, the lyr 3 would most likely be the pick for power in this price range without going balanced (since the 1990 can’t be balanced). Also something to note, the bifrost 2 is a warmer and full bodied dac, but it is also laid back if that is concerning to you. The bifrost 2 + the lyr 3 is a pleasing combo that can drive things very well, but it’s also not the most impactful. Imo for the dac if you wanted something more impactful but still very thick sounding the ares ii is a great dac as well
So I guess if you are going for very high damage your hearing spl then I might tend to agree, but listening it normal to normal high levels it isn’t as important from my experience, it’s the quality of the power that counts (but if the sound quality isn’t sacrificed more power is typically better to have, but you do tend to sacrifice sound quality for power to some extent in most cases)
Edit: something else to consider is that when you push tubes hard they naturally have more distortion, but in a pleasing way with even order harmonic distortion. I personally don’t think you will have issues with it on the lyr 3 though as you aren’t driving the headphone off the tube and the real headphone amplification is handled by solid state so not a huge deal
Yeah I’ve read about that too, and seen it in the THD specs. I’m pretty sure I would not like tubed amps. The Lyr 3 can be purchased without a tube, although I’m not sure if that means it can be operated without one?
No, you would buy it without a tube if you had your own to do swap in there, but you can’t run it tubeless. Schiit did and perhaps still does sell something called the octal lisst, which will replace a tube with solid state mosfets (iirc?), but they don’t recommend it for the lyr 3
I would agree that a tube amp that actually drives headphones with tubes would not be up your alley in terms of what you are after, but you would most likely not have too many issues with a hybrid as the tube is only on the input stage, you sill maintain a good amount of the attack and speed from the solid state amp driving the headphones themselves
Some of the amps I would have recommended like the cayin iha-6 can’t be viable because of the fact that to get the most out of them you would want to be run balanced, and other options are either above or below this price range for higher power single ended options. The gilmore lite mk2 is in this range and very solid, but you might not be impressed by it’s power ratings, but it is fully class a
I do think that your best bet for single ended power, impact, and quality at this range would be the lyr 3 along with an ares ii imo, that would be very solid
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LCD 3 or 4 might be better. OR… LCD 24 if you must stay in the audeze lineup. I’m waiting for my ZMF Eikons to show up for my bass fix personally. I want to hear ZZ Top hit like a big old paper code 12 inch Marantz set of speakers with those.
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You into this shit. You kno a lot!
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Fostex T50RP MK3 + Shure 840 pads for inexpensive, good fun. V-shaped precision machines.
If you “only” need to EQ your Beyers down 5dB you probably won’t even need to EQ these.
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Ah that makes sense.
Ok. 
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Yes 
The stock “pancake” pads are just useless lol.
Meh, monoprice retro’s with big boy pad swap and XDUUO 05 amp, use the bass boost, there’s some thumpin’ in your head😝
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So I’ve weighed all my options and advice given here and decided to go with something totally different. The DT 177X GO from Drop.
From reviews they are saying they are “absolute monsters” for bass, so I should be more than satisfied with low end bass response. They also have a good sound throughout the frequency response without being too bright or midrange being too recessed. Soundstage isn’t something I really need because I do all my music listening while gaming, so I never do any “critical listening.” I just need it to “jam” and sound aggressive, loud, fun, with good detail and sound reproduction.
Also they’re only 32 ohm so my SMSL SP200 THX 888 amp will drive these extremely well, and I won’t need a new amp.
After looking at DAC reviews and prices I’ve chosen the SMSL SU-8. I believe the balanced outputs from it into my SMSL SP200 THX 888 amp will eliminate the extremely loud noise I’m getting from my my PC/motherboard DAC. 
Ironically, soundstage is better for gaming (easier to know where your enemies are).
Anyway, honestly, if you do all your music listening while gaming… 500$+ headphones and DACs and amps etc are pretty much useless. You don’t even want to fully enjoy the music, you just want to listen to it in the background. Just get a Topping E30 DAC or something similar for 100$ and that’s all.
Otherwise you’ll get into “detail monster” headphones and DACs and amps that will even be a hindrance because you’ll always have to pause games because your music sounds too good.
Enjoying hi-fi while gaming is like, I don’t know… coffee and beer. Choose one. If you mix both you’ll just be fucked up.
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My idea: Sell your THX amp, get AKG K7XXs (maybe?) + Topping E30 DAC + JDS Atom amp.