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Schiit Announces All-New Asgard 2

02/07/2013

A Complete Control Center for Desktop Audio
 
February 7, 2013. Today, Schiit Audio announced the production of the Asgard 2 headphone amplifier, the next generation of one of the most popular headphone amps in the world. Asgard 2 is a complete redefinition of Asgard, adding both a higher-performance gain stage based on the flagship Mjolnir amp, as well as convenience features such as selectable gain and preamp outs.
 
“With these changes, Asgard 2 becomes a complete control center for desktop audio,” said Jason Stoddard, Schiit’s Co-Founder. “It provides switched preamp outputs for use with powered monitors, and exceptional flexibility to power headphones from sensitive IEMs to power-hungry orthodynamics.”
 
IEMs are a special focus of Asgard 2. At the low gain setting of 1.5x, the noise floor is exceptionally low and the Alps Blue Velvet pot provides an very fine range of control, with excellent channel matching.
 
At the same time, Asgard 2 offers a high gain setting of 6x, and can provide up to 1W of power into 32 or 50 ohms, which makes it suitable for many power-hungry planar-magnetic, or orthodynamic headphones. With output voltage up to 30V p-p, it also pairs well with high-impedance, 300 and 600 ohm headphones.
 
Asgard 2’s all-new gain stage is derived from the Mjolnir design, featuring a high-voltage cascoded front end to reduce distortion by almost 10x relative to the original Asgard. This gain stage feeds MOSFET outputs run in true Class A via current sources.
 
Like all Schiit products, Asgard 2 is made in the USA. It features a 5-year warranty and 15-day money-back guarantee for in-home audition.
 
Despite the new features and higher performance, Asgard 2’s price remains at $249, thanks to streamlined production and new surface-mount design. The Asgard 2 is available from Schiit Audio at www.schiit.com.
 
About Schiit Audio
Founded in June 2010 by audio industry “old dogs” Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat, Schiit Audio has a simple, if somewhat insane, mission: to bring superior performance, design, and quality to audio products at near-Chinese prices, while manufacturing in the USA.
 
Jason Stoddard was the former engineering lead at Sumo, designing power amps that included Polaris II, Polaris III, Andromeda III, Ulysses, Ulysses II, The Ten, The Five, as well as preamplifiers including Athena II, Diana, and Artemis, and Sumo’s first digital line: Axiom and Theorem.
 
Mike Moffat was the founder of Theta, Theta Digital, and Angstrom, and his audio history covers an impressive list of firsts, including the first standalone DAC, the Theta DSPre, the first use of digital signal processing and bit-perfect digital filter algorithms, the first DTS surround processor, and more