I can do enough wood working at a family member’s house if I want the aesthetic. I mostly just asked because I saw people rave about those amps at CanJam (trip reports and vlogs that is, I didn’t go).
Hmm… final thought on the tubes. Is it like the rest of the headphone experience where I should start small to appreciate the tube sound and work my way up?
Going to be hunting around to find a pair of LCD-X to sample… If this goes too much longer ill just end up buying them though… 
This one is a strange one. If you start at like the darkvoice, it will be very different than the higher end tube amps because there is such a gap in performance, so you could start lower, but idk for this one if you plan on going higher later on
I don’t know either. I think I’ll pick up a b-stock Lyr 3, but upon reading up a bit last night Microzotl MZ2 is the amp to get. They’ve done their homework with the engineering and I’m pretty sure I interviewed for a job next to their facility in MD a few years ago. The Tuba I think is the budget oriented full tube amp I’ll get if I somehow can’t justify the MZ2.
The main reason I can’t drop the Lyr 3 from my mind and why that amp over a the LPS is that 1 tube makes sampling for tube rolling MUCH cheaper to get a feel for the tube. I’d like to have a test system before tube rolling matched sets in a Tuba or MZ2. This is of course is the initial thought as I go down the research rabit hole.
Something to consider, for tube rolling, imo it’s a rabbit hole that imo actually isn’t that worth it from my experience, just get something you like and plop it in there and be content, because you really can’t easily a/b, you will notices the differences but it might be harder to call one definitively better. Of course tube roll by all means, but personally when you get to the higher end you will already have good tubes in there stock, and imo a better quality amp with good tubes will make more of a difference than a ok amp with great tubes
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Picked up a Sundara and now I’m looking for a solid amp/dac that will last me a few years. Currently looking at a magni3+/modi stack. Would it be worth spending a little extra to get a Asguard 3 with either the 4490 dac or a topping e30?
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100% this it takes a lot of time, add in different headphone choices then you’ll never listen to any music properly ever again lol.
So personally I think the asgard 3 would be a worthwhile step for the sundara, it benefits from the higher quality amp and extra power boost. I would personally say grab a standalone dac so you can upgrade down the line (like the e30)
Also if you do decide to go a bit more budget with the magni 3+, I would recommend against the modi 3, it’s outdated and not very refined for the current dac market
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I mean you can still upgrade down the line but idk how the 4490 compares to the e30… if it’s close then maybe an all-in-one might be nice… plugging in a higher tier dac later still being an option
I would personally give the edge to the d10 or e30 imo in terms of sound, but I do agree the convenience of the all in one can be appealing. Also if you have an all in one you of course can plug in something higher end down the line but the dac inside of there is useless now and you can’t really recoup the cost of it where you could sell or re-purpose a dac like a d10
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Ill let you know next week how the sundara sounds with a entry DAC(fiio e17k) going through the asgard 3. I can also let you know how they sound through the same fiio e17 DAC and the schiit Magni Heresy to see if any difference is noted. I have both the HiFIman Sundara’s and the schiit hersey comming in next week.
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It’s less of tube rolling for A/B and more like “I’ll try one to see it’s worth to stock up on some”. If I try I a tube and hate it, at least I’m not stuck with a matched set.