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Schiit Asgard 3

Schiit Asgard 3

Two benches measured an amp that adds nothing. Most of the people who owned it heard a tube amp.

Discontinued — Schiit's current lineup replaces it with the $399 Asgard X, and the company describes that amp as a departure from the Asgard 3 and more a successor to the Asgard 1 and 2. Despite the Class A marketing it is not a pure Class A design like those earlier Asgards: it is a current-feedback amp with Schiit's Continuity output stage, biased into Class A for about the first 500 mW into 32 ohms. Single-ended throughout, with one 1/4-inch jack that gets the full output. The optional internal DAC card changed over its life — an AK4490 card at launch, later an ES9028, alongside the pricier True Multibit — so a review's verdict on the DAC may not describe the card in a given unit.

OverreviewHeadphone Amp16 sourcesas of 2026-09-04

Schiit's first product, in June 2010, was a $249 Class A headphone amp called the Asgard, the first thousand of which were built in a garage. The Asgard 3 arrived in 2019 as the third pass at that idea and broke the usual pattern twice over: it made three and a half times the power of the Asgard 2, and it cost fifty dollars less, at $199. It also stopped being a pure Class A amp — the new Continuity output stage keeps roughly the first half-watt in Class A and extends Class-A-like behaviour past that, which is why it runs cooler than the coffee-warmer it replaced and still gets warm enough to notice.

For six years it was one of the default answers to what amp should I buy? — enough power for a Susvara out of a single unbalanced jack, an Alps RK27 volume pot, a US-made metal chassis and a five-year warranty. It is also the amp that most cleanly stages the oldest argument in desktop audio, because the measurements and the listeners do not describe the same product. Schiit has since retired it in favour of the $399 Asgard X, so this is a used-market picture now.

The overview

A discrete, single-ended headphone amp and preamp that took optional internal DAC and phono cards, sold from 2019 until Schiit replaced it with the Asgard X. Almost everything measurable about it is agreed: 3.5 W into 32 ohms and 650 mW into 300 is far more power than the price implied, the single 1/4-inch jack gets all of it, the noise floor is low enough that sensitive in-ears stay quiet on low gain, output impedance is under 0.2 ohms, and the metal chassis, Alps pot and five-year warranty are a class above the budget amps below it. Two things are not agreed. The first is whether it has a sound at all: two independent benches measure it effectively transparent, while most listening reports describe a warm, tube-like richness — and one hears that same richness as lost detail. The second is the internal DAC cards, which the measurement side and two reviewers say to skip in favour of an external DAC, and which one reviewer calls the reason to buy the box at all. It runs warm to hot, the power switch is on the back, and there is no balanced output, remote, or digital input other than the card's USB.

Where they agree

  • Far more power than the price implied — 3.5 W into 32 ohms and 650 mW into 300, enough to drive a Susvara to volume
  • All of that output comes from the single 1/4-inch jack, so no balanced cable is needed to get the most from it
  • Quiet at real listening levels, including with very sensitive in-ears on low gain
  • A US-made folded-aluminium chassis, an Alps RK27 volume pot, an internal transformer and a five-year warranty
  • RCA pre-outs that mute when headphones are plugged in make it a genuine desktop preamp as well as a headphone amp

Where they split

  • Whether it has a sound: two benches measure it effectively transparent, most listeners describe a warm, tube-like tilt, and one hears that warmth as a muddied midrange
  • The internal DAC cards: panned by the measurement side and two reviewers who recommend the bare amp plus an external DAC, defended by one as the whole reason to buy the box
  • How hot it runs: four sources call the chassis genuinely hot, one calls it barely warm — but that one is measuring against the pure Class A Asgard 2 it replaced
The verdict, mappedEvery aspect on one axis — criticized to praised. Hover a point for its spread; click to jump.
CriticizedNeutralPraised

By aspect — in detail

Power

Strong consensus · 7 src

The least controversial thing about it: everyone who measured or drove hard loads found far more output than $199 implied, and all of it comes out of the single-ended jack.

“There is a ton of headroom available here to drive high impedance headphones.”

amirm · Audio Science Review

“the Asgard 3 could hit maximum volume yet still sound coherent and punchy”

Currawong · Head-Fi
Measured

Schiit rates it at 5 W into 16 ohms, 3.5 W into 32, 2.5 W into 50, 600 mW into 300 and 300 mW into 600. ASR's bench measured 650 mW into 300 ohms and 3.4 W into a 33-ohm load on high gain, against its own 100 mW pass mark.

Noise

Moderate · 8 src

Quiet at any real listening level, including with very sensitive in-ears on low gain. The dissent is narrow and explained: one owner hears hiss only far past any usable volume, plus a computer-dependent hum that comes in over the DAC card's USB link and vanishes when it is unplugged.

“absolutely black background, zero hiss, zero hum, and no audible channel imbalance whatsoever”

Matty Graham · Headfonia

“applying the torture test of the very sensitive Campfire Andromedas, and found the Asgard 3 to be near silent at listening levels”

Currawong · Head-Fi

“A hiss, which I can only hear from with the volume knob above 3 o'clock on Lo gain”

ev666il · Head-Fi impressions thread
Measured

Schiit's own APx555 run reports a signal-to-noise ratio of about 116 dB on low gain and about 104 dB on high, at both 300 and 32 ohms; ASR rates noise performance very good and output impedance very low, against a spec of under 0.2 ohms.

Transparency

Contested · 8 src

Sources split on the oldest question in desktop audio. The benches say the amp adds nothing audible; most listeners say it adds a warm, tube-like richness; one says that richness costs real detail. Nobody disputes the numbers — they dispute what the numbers account for.

Measured

ASR measured distortion at -115 dB at unity gain, excellent frequency response and very low output impedance. Schiit's APx555 report puts THD+N at 1 V into 300 ohms on low gain at about 0.00028 percent — but at 32 ohms, on the same low gain, about 0.0025 percent, roughly ten times higher, which matches ASR finding distortion setting in from around 10 mW into a low-impedance load.

⚠ vs. listeners — The bench offers no mechanism for the warmth: flat response, sub-0.2-ohm output impedance and distortion far below audibility mean the amp should not be reshaping any headphone's tone. Yet the warmth reports are consistent, and several of them use the same 300-ohm Sennheisers where the amp measures cleanest. The one place the data does move is into low impedance, which is the opposite of where the richness is most often described — so the split is not resolved by the graphs, only bounded by them.

Where it splits
audibly warm and euphonic — a flattering voice, not a straight wire51%

“it actually feels a lot like a quality tube amplifier: a rich, slightly euphonic coloration (without going overboard) and delivering beautiful timbre.”

John Grandberg · Darko.Audio
measurably and audibly neutral — it adds nothing, which is the point36%

“Distortion is an inaudible -115 dB.”

amirm · Audio Science Review
the warmth is real and it costs detail on already-rich headphones13%

“Although the Asgard 3 is certainly a more technically sophisticated amp than the Magni 3 and Liquid Spark, I preferred the Elex on both of these cheaper amps.”

dematted · Super Best Audio Friends

Features

Contested · 6 src

The chassis itself is well liked — front gain and input switches, RCA pre-outs that mute when headphones are plugged in, and a card slot that made it a one-box system. What divides sources is whether those DAC cards are worth buying, or whether the right purchase is the bare amp plus an external DAC. Everyone agrees on what is missing: no balanced output, no remote, and no optical or coaxial input, since the cards are USB-only.

Measured

ASR measured the AK4490 card at roughly -90 dB second-harmonic distortion, placing it in the poor band of DACs tested, and found it output only about 1.4 volts — not enough to drive the amplifier to full power, which is why the same reviewer got far more out of the amp fed from an external DAC.

Where it splits
the internal DAC cards are the weak link — buy the amp bare and feed it an external DAC79%

“the AKM4490 DAC simply is not performant. It doesn't measure well and produces too little output to let the amplifier spread its wings.”

amirm · Audio Science Review
the card is the point — one box that beats whatever your computer was doing21%

“Even on my much more expensive gaming PC, the AK4490 dramatically improved my audio experience.”

Christopher Coke · MMORPG.com

Ergonomics

Moderate · 6 src

A mixed bag that most sources land near neutral on. The Alps RK27 pot and the front-panel gain and input switches are consistently praised, and the interior-lit design avoids the glaring LED of the Asgard 2. Against that: the power switch stays on the back, a muting relay adds about eight seconds before sound, the panel icons are tiny, and it runs warm — four sources call it genuinely hot, while one, measuring against the pure Class A Asgard 2 it replaced, calls it barely warm.

“I’d like to commend Schiit for implementing a great volume pot”

Matty Graham · Headfonia

“Like the Asgards of yore, the Asgard 3 gets hot.”

Matty Graham · Headfonia

“the Asgard 3 gets barely even warm to the touch”

Sonis · Audiophile Style

“For some reason the company makes the iconography so small that one almost needs a magnifying glass to make them out.”

Sonis · Audiophile Style
Measured

ASR rates channel balance as OK at 20 dB of attenuation and notes that analog volume controls vary from unit to unit, so low-volume tracking is a per-unit question rather than a model-wide one.

Build

Moderate · 6 src

Folded aluminium, real connectors, an internal mains transformer instead of a wall wart, five pounds on the desk and a five-year warranty — reviewers rate the chassis well above its price bracket. The spread here is one owner's single-unit failure, not a pattern.

“It makes its diminutive brother, the well-built Magni, feel like a flimsy toy in comparison.”

Matty Graham · Headfonia

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

amirm · Audio Science Review

“I opened the amp and found that the switch was not at all soldered whereas the gain selector is soldered strong.”

goryglory0209 · Head-Fi impressions thread

Value

Moderate · 9 src

Near-universal praise at the $199 launch price, from the measurement side as much as the subjective one — several sources call it the best price-to-performance amp of its generation. The dissent is not that it is expensive but that its voice is specific enough to be a gamble on some headphones. All of that was written when it was in production; today it is a used-market buy.

“At $199, it’s a stone-cold bargain and absolutely worth the step-up from the tier of entry-level amplifiers that sit below it.”

Matty Graham · Headfonia

“I’d say that the Asgard 3 is under-priced given the sound quality”

Currawong · Head-Fi

“I do think this is the sort of amplifier that has a very unique sonic presentation, and so it might be a risky buy.”

dematted · Super Best Audio Friends

Best for

  • High-impedance dynamic headphones like the HD 600 and HD 650 or the 250 and 600 ohm Beyerdynamics, where it both measures cleanest and draws the warmest praise
  • Anyone who wants one box with a good volume pot and no balanced-cable shopping
  • Listeners who like a slightly rich, non-fatiguing presentation, and who pair it with brighter or drier headphones
  • Desks that need a preamp for powered monitors as well as a headphone amp

Skip if

  • You want measured transparency into low-impedance planars — distortion into 32 ohms runs about ten times higher than into 300
  • Your headphones are already dark and rich; more than one source calls that pairing too much of a good thing
  • You need balanced outputs, a remote, or an optical or coaxial digital input — the DAC cards are USB-only
  • You want a cool-running desk, or a front-panel power switch
  • You want to buy new: it has been discontinued in favour of the Asgard X, so it is a used or B-stock purchase now

At a glance

↳Consensus
83 / 100weighted mean across 16 sources — an aggregate, not a single verdict
↳Type
Amp
↳Sources
16 · 6 classes
↳As of
2026-09-04
↳Owner rating
5.0/5 · 10small, self-selected sample — skews high

Where to buy

Sources16 reviews across 6 classes. Weight reflects expertise × independence; echoes collapsed.
  1. s1Schiit Asgard 3 Headphone Amp & DAC Reviewamirm · Audio Science ReviewMeasurement2020-06-28w1.00
  2. s2Asgard 3 — APx555 Standard Test Suite reportSchiit AudioMeasurementunknown2019-08-06w0.60
  3. s3Schiit Audio Asgard 3 ReviewMatty Graham · HeadfoniaEditorial2020-05-10w0.85
  4. s4Starting points: Schiit's Asgard 3John Grandberg · Darko.AudioEditorial2020-08-11w0.90
  5. s5Schiit Audio Asgard 3 ReviewSonis · Audiophile StyleEditorial2019-11-18w0.80
  6. s6Schiit Audio Asgard 3 Headphone Amplifier with AK4490 DAC ReviewChristopher Coke · MMORPG.comEditorial2019-10-29w0.70
  7. s7Schiit Audio Asgard 3 Desktop Headphone Amplifier — showcase reviewCurrawong · Head-FiEditorial2020-03-21w0.85
  8. s8Asgard 3 mini-review in the impressions threadXERO1 · Head-FiCommunity2020-06-14w0.70
  9. s9The Asgard 3 - A Mixed Reviewdematted · Super Best Audio FriendsCritical2019-12-24w0.80
  10. s10Asgard 3 owner impressions in the Continuity threadRaimei Templar · Super Best Audio FriendsCommunity2019-12-16w0.60
  11. s11Owner report: background hiss and USB-linked humev666il · Head-Fi impressions threadOwnerw0.50
  12. s12Owner report: unsoldered input selector switchgoryglory0209 · Head-Fi impressions threadOwnerw0.40
  13. s13Schiit Asgard 3 - The best budget headphone amp no-one's talking aboutPassion for SoundVideo2020-12-15w0.70
  14. s14Schiit Asgard 3 Class A Continuity Headphone Amp and Preamp — owner star ratingsAmazonOwnerunknownw0.30
  15. s15Asgard X — product page, FAQ and card compatibilitySchiit AudioEditorialsponsored2026-09-04w0.40
  16. s16Asgard 3 product page — final list price and module options (archived)Schiit Audio via the Internet ArchiveEditorialsponsored2025-03-03w0.40

Limitations & method

Consensus-of-sources synthesis · as of 2026-09-04 · not a measurement verdict or ground truth.