Is This Affordable Amplifier the Perfect Hi-Fi Upgrade for Your Desktop?

For the last 15 years, Schiit Audio has been on a mission to make high-quality hi-fi components that are significantly more affordable than they probably should be.

Today, the California- and Texas-based audio brand makes a wide variety of components — DACs, preamps, headphone amps and speaker amps — that are fit for the desktop and larger hi-fi setups. Most range between $100 and $500.

When the company launched in 2010, the Asgard, a headphone amplifier priced at $249, was its original offering. Now it has released a new iteration, the Asgard X, which is an affordable headphone amp that borrows technologies from the brand’s significantly higher-end flagship model, the $1,199 Mjolnir 3.

Schiit Asgard X

Schiit Audio

A mini Mjolnir

The Asgard X is a Class A headphone amplifier and preamp that pays homage to the original Asgard in name and by looking nearly identical— it has the same compact, all-metal design with a large volume knob.

However, Schiit has overhauled the Asgard X’s internals so that’s actually quite similar to its flagship headphone amplifier, the Mjolnir. According to the brand, the “Asgard X brings [of the] much Mjolnir 3 to a smaller, friendlier design.”

Schiit Audio

Trickle-down tech

The Asgard X features the same zero-feedback topology as the Mjolnir 3, including the exact same discrete front end, with the exact same parts. But to match the smaller form factor of the Asgard X, Schiit developed an entirely new output stage that it’s calling “Continuity A.”

According to the press release, “Continuity A solves the problem of NPN and PNP device mismatch in complementary Class A designs, by running NPN and PNP devices at the same current at the same time on both positive and negative rails.”

Schiit’s co-founder Jason Stoddard describes the Asgard X as actually having more output power than the Mjolnir 3, but just in “much smaller, cooler-running product.”

Schiit Audio

Desktop ready (with module)

The other big upgrade with the Asgard X is that, thanks to a new modular design, Schiit gives you the option to add its Mesh DAC card that supports Forkbeard — this is Schiit’s app that allows you to adjust things like EQ, balance, loudness and volume.

With this DAC module, you’ll be able to use the Asgard X as a headphone amp/DAC with your desktop setup — Schiit calls the Asgard X “an all-in-one desktop control center.”

Also noteworthy, doing so brings Schiit’s Forkbeard control system to the desktop for the first time.

Schiit Audio

Price and availability

Schiit Audio’s Asgard X costs $399 without the optional Mesh DAC. For those who want to integrated into their desktop setup, the extra module drives up the Asgard X’s price to $549.

The Asgard X is available now. You can order it from the company’s website. It comes two finishes: black or silver.

Schiit Audio

Schiit Asgard X

• $399 at Schiit Audio

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