Hello! New to the forum. Recently, I picked up the TYGRs and love how they sound as an all arounder and I also have Argons too. I’m happy with those 2 headphones. I would like to try the MMX 300 and see if I like those better than the Argons, but that’s not a big deal right now.
As for my amp/dac, I have an Atom and El Dac. I’ll list out my scenarios down below.
Keep what I have because there probably isn’t much to be gained.
I lean towards route 2 or 3 just the asgard no modius, as the argons can appreciate with more power. except I dont really think your desktop warrants a DAC upgrade more of an amp one if anything but honestly if your happy with how everything sounds you should stay
There’s a bunch of stuff around the site about the sound signatures of both the Asgard and RNHP. Do some searching. Afaik the RNHP is the superior amp in most respects.
No one on this site has bought one and reported it. Ask that in the L30 thread.
@Kelevra I would avoid E30/L30 stack as they’re only a minor improvement to the atom (referencing reviews, comparisons, and measurements. I do not own either). I would definitely look at the asgard. Another good single ended amp to look at for beyers would be the Gilmore Lite Mk2 or RNHP.
I would echo RiceGuru. The El DAC is a nice little DAC and the Asgard is lots of power for a pretty small price.
Be a nice place to hang out for several months or longer. Then see what you like and dislike about your system and go from there.
You may be surprised how much bias plays a role in headphone amplifiers and the Atom is audibly transparent which means you cannot get an “Upgrade” in distortion. Only thing that can be improved on is power but any headphone below 300ohm shouldn’t realistically need more power than the Atom unless you listen at stupid levels. This is what someone wrote on ASR who is a knowledgeable person describing the difference in power between two schitt amps and i think they sum it up perfectly
" The Asgard 3 plays just 1.6dB louder than the Heresy, but with a measurably higher distortion level.
Both the Heresy and Asgard-3 have been measured on an AP555 and can be compared.
Both are equally ‘flat’, there is no warmth to the sound, other than dreamed, assumed or perceived by some individuals. It is not there in a technical/provable sense.
Smooth and warm are headphone (+ recording quality) properties, not from amplifiers.
Asgard has a better volpot, onboard power supply, bigger form factor, more weight, no wall wart, one can insert a DAC card and better ergonomics. It is basically a slightly bigger Magni3+".
power is important example which is out of price range but from my experience is the scaling with more power. My two amps are Woo WA33 which is 10 watts and Hugo TT2 which is about 2 watts. The empyrean is much better on WA33, I get rumble in the bass that I don’t on the TT2.
I would go with most power you can get for your headphones at your price, don’t worry if you can stack them. For my two channel setup is a topping D10 and it goes to Emotiva gear and the SQ is very good.