Hello. From your point of view, what will be upgrade from Asgard 3, but without tubes:)
If you want a similar sound but better quality, Iāve heard the RNHP is very good.
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What price range? At ~500USD there is the Lake People G111, Rupert Neve RNHP, and the RebelAmp.
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Jotenheim!
Alex
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Thank you for the answers!
Without price range:) Just want to gather some money for top setup:)
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Compare this $399 amp!
Balanced Headphone Output:
Maximum Power, 16 ohms: 7500mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 32 ohms: 5000mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 3000mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 300 ohms: 900mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 600 ohms: 500mW RMS per channel
Schiit Jotenheim!
:>)
Itās not necessarily a good thing, a lot of people donāt need that much power. My head would implode hitting the high gain switch, lol.
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Buts its there if you ever do need it!
You cant add power afterwardsā¦like a boy scoutā¦be prepared!!!
lol
Alex
Thereās only like 3-4 headphones that I can think of that would actually take advantage of that much power, and they would be grossly inappropriate to put on a jot anyways
You canāt add quality afterwards either
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STILL loving my Asgard! My next purchase may have to be new pads for the Sundaras! 
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We can argue the subjective āqualityā thing for yearsā¦and if those 3-4 heaphones are of concern to you. wellā¦you have choices.
Whether they are good or bad, less expensive or more expensive thats left to the āearā of the beholder!
:>)
Alex
Indeed, thatās what this hobby is about lol, if subjectivity was not involved, this would be a very very very different hobby (most likely moreso along the lines of pc hardware or whatnot perhaps)
Correct, so that extra power of the jot is really a non benefit and will not really be utilized by the mass majority of people
I completely agree with this. I always tell people to listen for themselves.
From my personal experience, these are the few lessons Iāve learned:
- My personal enjoyment has been inversely proportional to measurements. My most enjoyed amps were āterribleā in measurements.
- Power isnāt everything. Iāve enjoyed amps that were way less in power that were implemented better.
- Iāve experienced both amps and DACs that were well implemented in SE outperform a balanced. Itās all about how well the engineer implemented each one.
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I think the argument for balanced becomes much more compelling when you move up the price bracket, but in the more midrange and below amp section, it generally just tends to add more cost and complexity for no real benefit (besides the common benefits of balanced interconnects but if those actually make a sound quality difference is debatable, and still adds mostly unneeded cost to the consumer)
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So recently Iāve found it useful to use the A3ās input select switch as a mute switch (push it up to select internal DAC, which I donāt have). I turn it on before switching everything off and going to bed to prevent myself from blowing out my speakers the next day (in case I forget to turn down the volume knob after a headphone listening session the night before).
Just thought Iād share - not sure how many others use the input switch similarly.
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I have a question about the A3 with included DAC module. From the forums Iāve read, people are pretty negative about the integrated DAC. I understand that it doesnāt measure as good as some of the better entry-level DACs, but what Iām unsure about is the talk concerning power. Does using the integrated DAC in the A3 limit performance? Assuming you had a DAC that measured the same as the A3 module, would there be any difference between using it separately with the A3 and using the AIO version? Is it only a power/volume difference? If I donāt have any hard-to-drive headphones, would there be any difference?
yes, it looses headroom and power(edit: nothing incredibly significant just noticeable)ā¦ I can personally confirm that after I had this same question with M0N before when I had gotten the multibit version of the asgard 3 in and noticed my own personal asgard without that dac could push a little more. As for difference? yeah, but it depends on the dac honestly. Granted difference in dacs is relatively small unless you get way up in the price points.
generally yeah outside of small sound characteristics based on dac such as I found the toppings to add a bit more warmth and the like.
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So I gave you my opinion on what I experience with mine using the multibit dac, being that it was just turning up the volume a bit more than say using an external dac.
As far as loosing headroom, it wasnāt a lot. It might the difference say going from 9āoclock to say 10āoclock to achieve the say volume of decent sound.
In terms with sound, that would be more of a characteristic of what the dac is producing.
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Thanks, @Falenkor and @Rick_Jones. I had an E30 for a while, but have been using my MOBO for the past month while I waited to make a final decision on what I wanted to keep. Sounds like itāll still be an upgrade (re: DAC) despite its limitations in the A3.