Hey guys, so haven’t asked for some information in a while. So, if you read my posts you know I use the Asgard 3 and Liquid platinum as my go - to amps alongside several headphones such as nighthawk carbon, lcd - 2, aeon open x, Beyer T1 and 1990, among a few others. Lately, I have wondered about potential upgrades and the like to my amps and if it’s worth it. Upon speaking with M0N of recent it was brought to my attention an amp such as the IFI Pro iCAN exists. Mind you this is expensive it can be found around $900 - $1000 which is my absolute maximum so it has me curious upon looking into it… an amp that is both solid state as well as tube as well as balanced and single ended plus appears to be able to hook to speakers as well. It has me curious on if this would fit my sound signature preferences from my amp setups. To clarify on my preference I genuinely like amps that can roll off the treble a little bit (I have bright headphones so this kind of comes with that preference for me), good spacial recreation, warm, and open. I also pair my current setup to the bifrost which sound amazing but I wasn’t sure if this is potentially the current choice either. As far as asgard is concerned I would prefer if it was a little warmer honestly but everything else about it is fantastic and as far as lp is concerned it doesnt have that spatial recreation but its very warm and very open both really bring out the details and really sound great for bright headphones. Upon sitting with the IFI Zen Dac I noticed that these particular amps really sound great for bright headphones as well as more neutral headphones too and after sitting with the 3d mode from ifi I noticed it seems to increase treble which sounded shockingly good on something such as the tygr. Needless to say it has me curious on the potential upgrades and the like or alternatives there is here. I was already planning to purchase a tube amp but it seems this ifi pro ican can not only take up the solid state part but tube amp. Of course I am open to suggestions especially from those who know well how the asgard 3 sounds as it’s literally one of my favorite sounding amps and I would be interested in hearing if theres potential alternative dacs in this case… though bifrost may be the best result here in this particular case. I haven’t really tried anything better than that bifrost 2 and its the multibit too
Thanks to anyone and everyone who chimes in with advice.
So are you only looking for a headphone amplifier without a Dac if I understand correctly. If so, there are some. Schiit brought out a new one a few days ago. Then there is the topping A90, Lake people, Violectric.
It also depends a little on what your preferences are in order to be able to give better assessments of the devices.
to my understanding they do not have the sound signature I am searching for.
That is indeed correct. Seperate amp with the characteristics described above. Warm, good spatial recreation, open, rolled treble. iCAN over there is a two in one unit being both a tube amp and a solid state which is why I was wondering about it or potential alternatives.
I mentioned the dac as it’s possible that there could be a better dac for me in my particular sound signature than the bifrost 2 though not particularly necessary.
The violectric actually might be up your alley here, while being somewhat neutral, they are a tad warm, a tad smooth, but very open and spacious with great control and impact. Not extremely colored though. And also they don’t play as nicely with the bifrost 2 as they do other dacs
not extremely colored so it’s colored then? Well aright. got my attention till -
That ^ lol. I like my bifrost. Less you feel theres a better alternative in this regard for my setup. What would you say makes violectric better for me than that iCAN?
Yes but like it’s small lol, could have phrased that better, still could say it’s a more neutral amp with slight coloration
I think the vio is a higher tier amp sound wise, it’s more refined and capable, generally just higher quality of sound, but you clearly take a larger hit on the feature side of things. And with all the things you like to try and stuff like that, the features might end up winning out imo. If you did go with a violectric, I would suggest you consider something like a soekris dac1541 or Berkeley alpha series 2 dac, etc as the vio stuff is more dac picky. The bifrost does sound good, but it might end up sounding a bit too smooth or dull with the Vio imo