Schiit Asgard 3 Headphone Amp & DAC Review

[poimandres]

I think that is the thread where the akm version was tested. I may be wrong but I don’t think the amp was tested by itself.

 

[Jimbob54]

I think that is the thread where the akm version was tested. I may be wrong but I don’t think the amp was tested by itself.

Pretty sure he used RCA inputs too, missing the DAC out.

 

[poimandres]

Just found and re read it, according to Amir he tested the internal dac and the preamp, unless I am missing something I don’t think the amp by itself was measured.

 

[Vini darko]

Just found and re read it, according to Amir he tested the internal dac and the preamp, unless I am missing something I don’t think the amp by itself was measured.

The first dashboard is the dac measured through the preout.
Second dashboard is the headphone amplifier with analog in from the RME adi.
Preout is not measured with analog in. Would be interesting to see if matches the headphone out preformace.

 

[MadMan]

The Magni 3+ solves that problem already. It has a driver stage which helps low impedance performance. However, high impedance performance suffers a bit, but nothing dramatic. Check its measurements.

What ? No, the Magni 3+ is a discrete design and not as performant as the Heresy, although obivously still good. My point was they make an opamp design similar to this, aka with a ton of power, but super clean like the Heresy. This Asgard 3 = Magni 3/3+ (discrete), an 'Asgard Herersy' would be the 'for the measurements' version.

 

[Theriverlethe]

That could be it


They should to that then, the sooner the better. That kind of performance is nowhere near worth 100$ (anymore).

I’m not sure when a 1.2V DAC was worth $100.

 

[Tks]

Definitely doesn't seem to be a modern revision that adopts the advances seen from their efforts of the Heresy onward.

I find it odd they'd still be selling 4490-based products, but there's still no excuse for that level of performance. I've never seen a device where you have SINAD higher than the Dynamic Range metric (which in of itself is pretty horrendous unable to clear Redbook levels).

Also the wording would lead someone to think a 4490 chip is simply inadequate. That could perhaps be the case if the V1 RME DAC didn't exist. If my memory serves me, the RME out-does the reference design of the 4490 in some areas... Sooo, yeah.

Bossman, can we get the filter response? :-\

 

[amirm]

Bossman, can we get the filter response? :-\

Ah, no. I just packed the darn thing. What difference does it make what the filter does in that DAC?

 

[Tks]

Probably none, but since there doesn't seem to be a way of switching filters like there is on some DACs or DACAMPs, I was curious to see if they blundered that too with a bad choice or something.

We need to get a checklist for you or something lol

 

[raif71]

What's with the use of AKM 4490 chips by US audio manufacturers? The last I heard, JDS Labs Atom Dac and now this Schitt. Would like to hear the pairing of JDS Labs Atom Dac and Asgard 3 to see how they perform.

 

[Theriverlethe]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Asgard 3 with its optional AKM4490 DAC Module. It was kindly purchased by a member and drop shipped to me for testing. By itself, the Asgard 3 costs US $199. With the optional DAC, the price becomes US $299 plus shipping.

The look is typical of Schiit products:

View attachment 71005

Power switch is unfortunately on the back. You have a choice of low gain (0 dB) and high gain. And using it as a variable pre-amp or headphone amp.

The unit is quite heavy due to inclusion of mains power supply which I like:
View attachment 71006

What I didn't like is how hot the unit runs. During testing the right side where the DAC board is, quite very hot on the bottom. The metal chassis should help with heat dissipation but still, I like to see it run cooler.

Since there is a DAC in there, let's measure that by itself first using preamp mode.

DAC Audio Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard:

View attachment 71007

Ouch! This is not good. We have a second harmonic distortion at 2 khz of nearly -90 dB which sets our SINAD (sum of noise and distortion) to almost the same value. This places the DAC in the "poor" (red) section of all DACs tested:

View attachment 71008

This must be one of the older DAC designs from DAC. As such, I am just going to quickly grind through a few more tests:

View attachment 71009

View attachment 71010

View attachment 71011

Very poor measurements. This DAC simply is not competitive this day and age.

Headphone Amplifier Audio Measurements
Again, let's start with our dashboard, feeding the unit 2 volts and asking it to generate the same ("unity gain"):

View attachment 71012

Ah, now we are talking! This is much more respectable. Distortion is an inaudible -115 dB. Overall ranking is very good as a result:

View attachment 71013

Noise performance falls in the same category:
View attachment 71014

View attachment 71015

Frequency response is excellent:

View attachment 71016

Output impedance is very low as well which is good:
View attachment 71017

Channel balance as you rotate the volume control is "OK" at 20 dB of attenuation:

View attachment 71018

Note that with these analog volume controls there are a lot of variations so your unit may be better or worse.

Headphone Amplifier Power Measurements
Now we get to the meat of the review to see how much power this amplifier has starting with 300 ohm load for high impedance headphones:

View attachment 71019

Interesting results. In low gain mode you have very low noise and distortion, almost approaching state of the art. If you need more power, then toggle the high power mode and boy does this thing pump out wattage! It produces 650 milliwatts which is huge. My standard for power in this test is must 100 milliwatts. There is a ton of headroom available here to drive high impedance headphones.

Switching to low impedance causes some heartburn for Asgard 3:

View attachment 71020

While low gain mode still has very low noise, distortion sets in at 10 milliwatts and climbs. High power mode is much worse but produces lots of power again at 3.4 watts.

Headphone Amplifier Listening Tests
As usual, I start with my tough to drive, low impedance (25 ohm) Ether CX headphone. I drove the Asgard 3 using its DAC input and while I had enough power to drive the CX, I was surprised that I had to max out the volume control to get it super loud. Same thing happened with Sennheiser HD650 headphone. This was puzzling.

I switching things around and drove the Asgard using my everyday RME ADI-2 DAC V2. Wow, what a transformation. I had enough power to once again cause my ear lobes to literally resonate with the bass beats! Power was clean and seemingly infinite. Yes, with the CX I got it to crackle but that was at such a level that hearing damage would occur at any moment. Overall fidelity was superb with fantastic detail, resolution and impressive bass.

It seems that the internal DAC is the older Schiit designs that only output 1.4 volts and hence can't drive the amplifier section to max power (nominal DAC output is 2 volts for RCA/unbalanced).

Conclusions
Let's dispense with the bad news first: the AKM4490 DAC simply is not performant. It doesn't measure well and produces too little output to let the amplifier spread its wings. It doesn't integrate well anyway, forcing you to still use an analog volume control with its attendant channel mismatch.

Pair the Asgard 3 with an external DAC though and you have one of the most powerful headphone amplifiers out there especially for high impedance headphones. The results is immediate satisfaction with amazing authority to produce any level of loudness you want or need.

Assuming you leave the DAC behind, I am happy to recommend the Schiit Asgard 3 headphone amplifier.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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What is going on with that 33ohm HP out graph in high gain between 1 and 10 microwatts? It might have been interesting to test with intermediate impedances to see where the Asgard starts to lose its Schiit.

 

[Theriverlethe]

It is a barebones board that would need a complete overhaul/re-design. I expect them to make new ones with Unison but not sure they will fit in legacy products, perhaps only their newest ones.. Unison takes up more PCB space than the off-the-shelf CMedia USB chip.

Does Unison require more PCB space? They should be able to eliminate another microcontroller. This board uses two AK4490 DAC’s for balanced output with Jotunheim. Modius only uses one AK4493, I believe.

I’m not an EE, but It’s really puzzling why they only managed ~1.2V single-ended/2.4V balanced with two DAC chips and OP1662 op-amps. Maybe they ran into thermal limits.

 

[Guermantes]

Not only that, it runs warm. Running your hand across the top of a nice warm amplifier while you listen, nobody is going to say it sounds cold and clinical.

What does "cold and clinical" sound like? Is it a flat response? Lack of 2nd harmonic distortion? Any consensus on this?

 

[Veri]

I’m not an EE, but It’s really puzzling why they only managed ~1.2V single-ended/2.4V balanced with two DAC chips and OP1662 op-amps. Maybe they ran into thermal limits.

It's quite puzzling, indeed. Perhaps it is done this way to make an external DAC sound "obviously" much better? idk.

 

[AudioSceptic]

Careful Amir, maybe he will take you up on that offer

There is no one here who would not want this to happen!

 

[Michael Kelly]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Asgard 3 with its optional AKM4490 DAC Module. It was kindly purchased by a member and drop shipped to me for testing. By itself, the Asgard 3 costs US $199. With the optional DAC, the price becomes US $299 plus shipping.

The look is typical of Schiit products:

The unit is quite heavy due to inclusion of mains power supply which I like:

I notice you have mentioned your like for having the power supply built in before. Is there any technical/usability/safety, etc reason(s) for this? Just curious, but it does seem to be a factor for you.

 

[Theriverlethe]

I notice you have mentioned your like for having the power supply built in before. Is there any technical/usability/safety, etc reason(s) for this? Just curious, but it does seem to be a factor for you.

I think it's mainly aesthetic, although there's also the issue of finding room for the wall-wart and blocking other outlets.

 

[odyo]

Ah, no. I just packed the darn thing. What difference does it make what the filter does in that DAC?

I think you should have consistent standard procedure measuring these products. It's really all over the place.

 

[odyo]

Schiit needs THX competitor to stack with their Modius imo. Something like Asgard Heresy with balanced. They can do Asgard 3+ for the ''warm and musical'' people.
However they should definitely update their dacs first though. That dac module is unacceptable crap costing additional $100 lmao. It could've been just included with the Asgard 3 for free. Their Modi 3 is also outdated in current market.

Magni 3+, Heresy and Asgard looks good. Headphones are really becoming very efficient. I think lower impedance/higher sensitivity performance becoming more and more important. Asgard 3's noisy brute force losing importance.

 

[solderdude]

To make a Heresy with Asgard power (single ended) you will need opamps with at least +/-22V rails. (these do exist but not spec'd as high)
The OPA1688 can only be used up to +/-18V rails.
The difference to Heresy is only 3.5dB though (1.5dB for low impedance)

Also to increase power in low impedance headphones you will need more opamps in parallel.