Schiit Asgard 3 Headphone Amp & DAC Review

[Jj_chandy]

Please contact customer service before placing your order and we can get you a different knob for your Asgard.

I contacted customer service and was told "I am sorry, we do not have any of the older knobs available"

 

[adg]

I contacted customer service and was told "I am sorry, we do not have any of the older knobs available"

I was told that about a week ago, but when I emailed today, I specifically mentioned that T.M.Noble from Audio Science Review said I could get a replacement knob.

 

[Jj_chandy]

I was told that about a week ago, but when I emailed today, I specifically mentioned that T.M.Noble from Audio Science Review said I could get a replacement knob.

Awesome I'll try that

 

[T.M.Noble]

Awesome I'll try that

Looks like there was a slight break down in communication on our end with some of our part time customer service reps.

All should be well now and they should honor your request.

 

[Jj_chandy]

Looks like there was a slight break down in communication on our end with some of our part time customer service reps.

All should be well now and they should honor your request.

All seems to be well. Thank you!

 

[napfkuchen]

I bought an Asgard 3 with 4490 DAC for headphone listening with Hifiman Sundara and Beyerdynamic T1.2. The design appealed to me very much. However it was quite disappointing and not a step up in audio quality. In "low power mode" it was too weak to drive these headphones and in "high power mode" noise was present. Sold it and bought a RME ADI-2DAC.

 

[wolf_walker]

Happy with the new DAC card and not having yet another box on my desk.

One thing I'm still puzzled by, the 3 seems to not be as loud as my 2 was.
It's like the last 10% of volume knob position increase things a LOT, but it's still
odd to be setting here at 80-90% volume. Granted this is on HE400SE which aren't
especially sensitive, but I noticed it right away with every set I've got. I don't think I'm
that deaf, yet, and I wonder if the cleanliness of the sound isn't fooling me and I'm
trying to moderate myself. I've seen some other discussion of this online with no
real consensus or conclusion. One of the reasons I bought the DAC card to replace my
D10S, which was pretty well thought of as far as I know, was to see if the input voltage or having
and external DAC was effecting things. It seems not.
I still love the amp, nothing else out there I'd bother
buying for the money.

Also I don't care about a knob, fwiw. BTDT dealing with customer preferences, you're damned if you do
and damned if you don't lol....

 

[raif71]

Anyone know what is the max input voltage at the rca in the asgard 3 can handle?... thanks

Edit: I'm asking this as I got this amp today. Currently pairing it with Topping D10s. Simply superb sound. I was thinking of connecting the amp to a mojo but line out of the mojo is 3V. Anyway with D10s. the pairing is already enjoyable. Listening with Senn hd6xx @high gain.

 

[oreganobag]

Recently replaced my Asgard 3 with an L30 II.

To me, its an improvement. The high gain being a design decision to keep normal gain intentionally low, maybe for IEMs, it weird to me. The Asgard 3 could not bring my X2HR loud enough on normal gain to be satisfactory, and on high gain, their were some artifacting/hissing audible when things weren't playing.

The L30 II sounds a bit cleaner and somehow the bass is much punchier. I can keep it in mid-gain, too. Maybe I just had a bad unit, but I'm satisfied now.

 

[Jimster480]

Recently replaced my Asgard 3 with an L30 II.

To me, its an improvement. The high gain being a design decision to keep normal gain intentionally low, maybe for IEMs, it weird to me. The Asgard 3 could not bring my X2HR loud enough on normal gain to be satisfactory, and on high gain, their were some artifacting/hissing audible when things weren't playing.

The L30 II sounds a bit cleaner and somehow the bass is much punchier. I can keep it in mid-gain, too. Maybe I just had a bad unit, but I'm satisfied now.

Maybe it had to do with the gain configuration

 

[Deleted member 21726]

Asgard 3 has new DAC inside(ESS ES9028). Is there measurement data of it?

 

[Jimster480]

Asgard 3 has new DAC inside(ESS ES9028). Is there measurement data of it?

i Doubt

 

[Veri]

Asgard 3 has new DAC inside(ESS ES9028). Is there measurement data of it?

ES9028 APx Report (as installed in Jotunheim 2, Asgard 3, output from amplifier)

 

[asrUser]

Recently replaced my Asgard 3 with an L30 II.

To me, its an improvement. The high gain being a design decision to keep normal gain intentionally low, maybe for IEMs, it weird to me. The Asgard 3 could not bring my X2HR loud enough on normal gain to be satisfactory, and on high gain, their were some artifacting/hissing audible when things weren't playing.

The L30 II sounds a bit cleaner and somehow the bass is much punchier. I can keep it in mid-gain, too. Maybe I just had a bad unit, but I'm satisfied now.

Something must have been wrong in your chain. Either a defective Asgard or something else.

 

[arrow0309]

A quick one, does a windows 11 user have to install any driver / utility for the ES9028 dac card? Or is that even possible? I know that there is a Schiit generic driver inside Windows 11.

 

[Veri]

A quick one, does a windows 11 user have to install any driver / utility for the ES9028 dac card? Or is that even possible? I know that there is a Schiit generic driver inside Windows 11.

Don't have to (and I don't think Schiit offers signed drivers), you fall back to the general purpose UAC driver which is present in both Windows, Mac, Linux, Android... even game consoles should be compliant although sometimes only UAC1.0 (Nintendo consoles). Most devices nowadays as well as this Schiit are UAC2 only..

 

[arrow0309]

My new Asgard 3 with ES9028 dac card started to give me a scratchy noise on the right ear, first noted in high gain with the Sundara and then even in low gain with the DT 900 Pro X.
About 2 weeks old. Could be the pot?
Sent it to Schiit Audio UK, hope it will be well fixed / replaced.

 

[Doodski]

My new Asgard 3 with ES9028 dac card started to give me a scratchy noise on the right ear, first noted in high gain with the Sundara and then even in low gain with the DT 900 Pro X.
About 2 weeks old. Could be the pot?
Sent it to Schiit Audio UK, hope it will be well fixed / replaced.

All looks good from a quick observation. You have the blue pot from Alps.

 

[arrow0309]

All looks good from a quick observation. You have the blue pot from Alps.View attachment 248893

OK but what do you mean exactly? Mine is a silver with the less shiny, matte knob.

 

[Doodski]

OK but what do you mean exactly? Mine is a silver with the less shiny, matte knob.

I mean to describe the part number of the pot that you have. We usually call it the blue Alps pot. What number is on it?