Liquid Spark vs Asgard 3

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories Headphone Amps
1

Hey folks —

Looking for some opinion here. Currently running a Liquid Spark paired with the LS DAC. I enjoy the sound signature this offers, but looking towards the future some.

Headphones I use currently are the Massdrop Meze Noir, Philips X2HR, and Beyer DT 770 (250 ohm). Looking to add a 990 (600 ohm) here in the future in terms of ‘upgrades’ or ‘sidegrade’ rather…

I am not concerned so much with technicals or analytics, more concerned with a pleasant sound which obviously is subjective… I enjoy a V-shaped type signature, with some added warmth from the source gear. Looking for some feedback by those who have played around with similar setups and have an affinity for similar tastes.

My question — from my scouring thus far, it sounds like a Schiit Asgard 3 + Bifrost 2 could be what I may consider my endgame until my chase takes me somewhere else. Obviously the Bifrost is a bit more of an investment, so I would be holding off on this addition for some time.

Turning focus to the Asgard 3 — how does it sound in comparison to the LS? How is the coloration? Do not have any experience yet with the “Schiit” house sound, so not sure how it would compare on this level to the Cavelli. Also, for more ‘near term’ use, I think I would go the route of adding in one of the integrated DACs. So part two of this question would be, which DAC would be preferred for my purposes? I understand this will affect power output to some degree, so later on down the road when the Bifrost is added to the chain, is this module able to be deactivated as to gain that power draw back?

Just spit balling here, I appreciate any input. Thanks!!

2

the Asgard 3 is warm…but if you are looking for warmth, I’d say consider something from iFi as they use the Burr Brown DAC and they make warm sound. I have the Zen DAC and love the warmth it gives my NHC a lot more than the Schiit Vali 2 hybrid tube amp I had…but that would be more a side-grade move than upgrade from your LS, so perhaps look into iFi’s new Neio iDSD:

3

interesting take… I have looked into some iFi offerings, but I have really no desire to run balanced (which is what sort of steered me away from the ‘Schiitius’ stack). I wonder, will the SE output be up to snuff?

4

no reason to avoid something just because it has balanced. that said, a well implemented SE output is supposed to be able to rival balanced output. I have no experience there though as I’ve not compared.

5

You honestly might do just as well to run the Asgard with you Spark DAC for now. It might push the Asgard a little further warmer than neutral, but you’d still get full power and it’s likely on par with the internal Schiit DAC card (perhaps not quite multibit level). That said, I hear there are some changes to the internal cards and I’m not sure how that might change things.