[eclein]

I couldn't resist, UPS guy brought my Schiit Asgard today and I must say these little headphone amps get really Hot for solid state gear. Its totally normal as it states all over the manual and pretty much anywhere you see info about them like right here.
  It sounds excellent right out of the box, took me right back to the first time I heard IEM's with an amp. Clean, crisp, great soundstage and its not even broken in yet- yes I believe in break in.
Its so nice to finally hear my headphone collection from a specifically built Headphone Amp, real nice. The build quality is like all my Virtue gear- built like a small fleet of tanks that make great music happen. I'll let it break in for a few days and check in on it from time to time but right from the get go..I dig it!!!!!!

[saisunil]

nice ... keep us posted ed ...

[Noseyears]

Cool, congrats for the new amp.
Im curious how it works your hifiman hp's. 

[Rclark]

Seems like those headphones are really doing on number on your ears Ed, you're even typing louder. Glad you're enjoying it.

[mca]

What headphones are you using with it?

[eclein]

I'm using a bunch of different ones actually but my main ones are the Hifiman HE-5LE and as this amp gets worked out a bit I'm hearing wonderful deep bass, crystal clear highs and mids. Very open, wide soundstage....I can literally hear it change from  time to time. I set it up and listened right away then just let it play for like two hours with the SB doing its shuffle thing and checked back in. I instantly heard more punchy bass, deeper lows....its about 1/2 way or 50% of the knob turn and its plenty loud for me. So its powerful enough as I hear it. I can hear where a bit more power may be a benefit but its not lacking and when I say a bit more, I'm talking smidgeon--LOL.
 This is easily worth what they ask for it......probably more but its early in this pieces powerup so its most likely to change more. I like the sound character of this amp alot. If the other Schiit sounds as good as this piece I'll be buying a big bag of Schiit in the near future-I think I'm back on the DAC now.
 Did I mention the build-outstanding quality, A1 in my book.    Its early but I still give it 5 dancing sunglass guys!!!!

[S Clark]

I noticed that those run hot at the RMAF.  I think that HAL had noticed it also, and commented about the negative effect of heat on solid state longevity.  Glad that you like yours, but that high operating temp is not good.

[eclein]

Class A are supposed to run hot...not a problem at all. They tell you all over the place to expect it, that its normal. They are real smart guys, smarter than either of us so I'm confident its a non-issue, thats what I think anyway....LOL.....it will out live me I'm certain of that..

[cedman1]

I have the same amp and it really is quite a tidy little head-amp.  The way it was designed, uses the metal case as a heat sink which has the trans attached directly to the case on the underside.

Very nice amp.

[S Clark]

Class A are supposed to run hot...not a problem at all. They tell you all over the place to expect it, that its normal. They are real smart guys, smarter than either of us so I'm confident its a non-issue, thats what I think anyway....LOL.....it will out live me I'm certain of that..

I suspect that you are right, besides, Schiit has a long warranty IIRC.  And as far as smarter than us... c'mon, set the bar a little higher!   

[eclein]

I forgot about that whole heat sink thing, that's pretty ingenious, I know I wouldn't have been able to pull this off...LOL.    I'd be the headbanger...LOL !!!!

[eclein]

Update: The unit is really opening up more and more and the sound is so much better than I expected. These headphones (HE-5LE) have the leather replacement ear pads and are seriously comfortable to wear. I may just use these every time I sit here and surf the web (Now playing: "The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo" soundtrack files).

 Immersive, wide and vast soundstage, incredible low end, I'm finding that I really love this new sound. HHmmmmm...enough of me rambling, sorry. Suffice it to say this amp is a huge hit with me...see ya when I come up for air!!!

[milford3]

I have been extolling Schiit headphone amps for sometime.  They are excellent.

http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=2

[eclein]

Milford you are one of the reasons I went with this, so Thank you!!