Nice purchase! Do you have the A3 in yet or is it still shipping? It will give a slight hint of extra bass and warmth on the 880. Or are you looking for more bass beyond that?
Iâve had it for a few months now. Itâs terrific, and a clear step up from my previous dac/amp, an SMSL AD18. The superior power prompted me to pull my DT880s out of a drawer, where theyâd been languishing for years, and reassess. I had left them aside in favor of an HD600 and HD650, finding the DT880s too bright and lacking the body of the Senns. With the Asgard, theyâre a touch less bright, making them more tolerable, and with more bass and body in general. They became my favorites esp for classical music. I ended up selling the HD650, and the HD600s are broken, so at the moment the DT880s are my go-to cans. Sometimes either bc I want closed or appreciate the extra punch for pop music, I reach instead for my Audeze EL-8Cs.
I donât feel the need to alter the signature of the DT880s now, but mainly Iâm curious to see if taking the brightness down another touch, and adding another touch of bass, might be better still. Pads are much cheaper to experiment with than new phones.
Another question is what comes next if I want to step up from the DT880s. I posted that much earlier in this long threadâŠit was inconclusive. Some said DT1990s, some said Focal Elex. Etc.
Iâll be keeping the Asgard for the forseeable future, though I do forsee pairing it with a Modius rather than rely on the DAC card I have in the Asgard 3. Word is that the inboard DAC limits the power of the Asgard, and switching to an external DAC will enable me to enjoy all the Asgardâs got. I gather that for the DT880s, that matters.
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For sure!
Yeah, there is not a direct upgrade currently available. There have been nuggets dropped that Beyer is nearing the launch of a DT1880, but to the best of my knowledge itâs not yet available.
Which dac card do you have? A Modius will definitely be a sonic upgrade over the AK4490 card. The multibit card and Modius are likely close in overall quality but might sound just a touch different. Either way, you are correct that the internal dac modules reduce the overall power output of the A3. They appear to put out a voltage that is a little too low for the input stage of the A3 and thus lowers its output ceiling.
As far as outboard DACs go, I have yet to hear an <$200 DAC that can match the Modius in overall sound quality.
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I have the AK4490 card. Honestly it sounds great, and I could never convince myself that the multibit would be worth the money after having read a ton of stuff about it. If it werenât for the power issue, I would have no reason to look at the Modius, and even then Iâm not confident that the extra juice would make a detectable difference to my ears on the DT880s. Iâve also been tempted to just pick up a Modi, and thereby solve the power problem, but my logic is that when/if I bother to spend $$$ on a new dac, might as well just pick up the Modius. Plus it would look better as a stack than a Modi-Asgard stack.
I love the looks of the Asgard. I dig the Schiit aesthetic.
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Yes, the Asgard looks good! Sounds even better! 
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Look no further, get a tube buffer. I can honestly vouch 100% for it and Iâm not afraid to shill the hell of this setup. Itâs inexpensive and will blow your socks off. Well, at least it did for me on my Tygr 300 R cans. I tried going back to no buffer for reference after a couple weeks and my A3 just sounds incomplete without it. Cheap Tube Buffer vs Darkvoice 336SE
for the 880 600 ohm? nah I disagree, I would whole heartedly snag a dark voice for this one any day of the week. I have to almost max out the asgard 3 to get it to full potential and it still lacks on the warmth for me thats with the tube buffer⊠dark voice works beautifully for this headphone
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I havenât tried it with high impedance headphones, I didnât think itâd be that hard to drive. Thanks for the input.
itâs not that itâs like extremely demanding⊠itâs the scaling and the fact itâs quite neutral bright so not much on the low end. Dark voice really helps fill out the lows⊠asgard 3 powers it just fine as well I just prefer tubes for it on an actual tube amp honestly
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I was wondering if you guys could help me out. I recently purchased my first setup with the DT880 600 ohm. The first week was great but now I am getting a lot of hissing, crackling, distortion. It is not constant but it is frequent. My equipment is as follows:
Lake People G103S
E30
DT880 600 ohm.
How difficult is it to damage the headphones? Not that I put them that loud but can they be damage from going too loud? On my PC I have the PC volume sliders between 50-80% and then the AMP volume at about 10 oâclock. If I change tracks I get pop and I feel like music is randomly distorting. Any ideas?
Try and separate which item could be damaged. Try the headphones on a different source
Then try and just use the amp if you are able to
Then if both work, it could be your dac
Also check the drivers on your computer
And try a different source on your dac too
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This could be a dac issue, make sure to install the e30 drivers, set the bit depth and sample rate to 24/96 for now, and make sure to disable any windows audio enhancements if you are using windows for all of this
Also there isnât a constant buzz, hiss, or hum correct?
Also as @Bmn1251 suggests try out another headphone and see if you get similar results
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Thank you for the replies. Unfortunately I do not have any other equipment to swap around and I know no one who has anything for me to borrow to test.
I have the updated firmware and drivers already installed but I did just double check, when I did update the drivers about a week ago I seem to have lost some functionality on the DAC. According to the manual I can adjust the volume of the DAC with my remote but it does not work.
I have set the bit depth and sample rate to 24/96 and I will test. Also, this is not a constant hum or hiss, or not that I can hear at least.
Thanks,
You can adjust it if you set the E30 to pre amp mode, if I remember correctly holding down the power button allows you to choose the option.
Try using the headphones on the PCâs headphone out to see if itâs the headphone.
Yes itâs most likely set itself back to dac mode during the update
@Saltcreek see if that stops some of the playback issues (make sure to restart the pc after you installed the drivers)
Done a restart and doing some experimenting. I did not realise the 600ohmâs could be just plugged into another PC so I did that. Some songs that I heard the popping/crackling are there on the other PC and with just standard USB headphones, so it is the song. I guess it is just much more noticeable with the DT880âs.
With that said there is now significantly less popping. I set the output on the Topping control panel to 24 bit from 32 bit and that seems to have made a difference. Should I get drivers for ASIO? Says it is not active at the moment.
Finally, pre-amp or DAC mode preferred? I still think there is something not quite right but it may be in my head. Actually, one thing, Amazon music sounds terrible so I have to use spotify.
That can happen for sure with higher resolution headphones
Yes that can happen since windows generally has issues with 32 bit audio, and you donât need it anyways
You should already have the asio driver, but you just arenât using it, so no need to worry
Personally I would use dac mode, I would set the windows volume to max, and then only control volume through the amp
If you get the chance try some lossless music, should be pretty nice
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Amazon has a higher quality service with Amazon HD Music now. If you have a bunch of playlists and such in Amazon already it might be an easier transition that way.
Glad youâre figuring things out. I hope you enjoy the gear! This hobby is a money pit but also deeply rewarding. Welcome aboard!
Would you say the Elite Velour are closer to stock or Choice Suede? I tried the Choice Suede but didnât like them. I ordered the Velour to replace them but if they sound too far off from the stock pads I might just cancel my order.
Between the two closer and better sounding then stock. In my opinion. They justâŠsweeten the sound. Itâs smoother, I think a little richer and keeps all the detail and everything the DT880s do well.
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